SF 487 
.B82 
Copy 1 



$6.41 

per Hen 
per\ear 

The, QoKning Egg Book 



\ 



Pl/BUSH£0 By 

THE FARM JOURNAL 



PHILADELPHIA 



$641 Profit 

Per Hen Per Year 



THE CORNING EGG BOOK 



Illustrating the Poultry Methods originated by the late Prof. G. M. Gowell, 
of Maine, and perfected by Edward and Gardner Coming 



Edited by 

Michael K. Boyer 



Published by 

WILMER ATKINSON CO. 

1909 
25 Cents 



'-•0 






Copyright, 1909 
By WiLMER Atkinson Co. 



\g4A25(i48:-f 



Contents 



Page 

Introductory 6 

Egg Farming as a Prohtable Undertaking 9 

Sunny Slope Farm lo 

Over Six Dollars Per Hen Per Year ii 

Premium Prices for Corning Method Eggs 12 

Marketing the Eggs 15 

The Breed to Keep 16 

Pullets or Yearling Hens ? 16 

House Room and Size of Flocks 17 

Buildings on Sunny Slope Farm 19 

Fresh Air and Sunlight 20 

Incubator Cellar 21 

The Brooder House 2^ 

Colony Houses 25 

Main Laying Houses 27 

The Breeding House 33 

The Cockerel House 35 

The Feedhouse and Workshop 35 

Operating the Incubators 37 

Ventilation and Moisture of Incubator Cellar 38 

When to Hatch 39 

Taking Care of the Chicks 39 

Feeding Xewly-Hatched Chicks 41 

Feeding Pullets While on Range 44 

Feeding Laying Pullets 45 

Feeding Cockerels for Broilers 46 

Feeding the Breeding Stock 46 

Feeding Hens Through Molt 47 

Mash — Morning or Night ? 47 

Fresh Cut Bone 48 

Green Food 48 

Drinking Water 49 

Charcoal, Grit and Oyster Shell 50 

Eggs for Hatching 50 

Cleanliness 52 

Punctuality and Regularity 53 



Introductory 



When Edward and Gardner Corning, whose chronicles of success in 
egg raising are recorded in this little book, had decided that poultry offered 
the means of a good livelihood, they began to study all the literature they 
could find on tlie subject. They were soon impressed with the wonderful 
amount of common sense and wisdom contained in the writings of Pro- 
fessor Gowell, of the Maine Experiment Station. Edition after edition 
of his writings had been printed and almost as quickly exhausted. The 
Comings secured all that he has written and studied it diligently and to 
a good purpose. 

Their methods of work, their theories of profitable poultry raising 
are all here set forth, plainly and clearly. Their success will be an inspira- 
tion to every poultry raiser the country over. What they have done with 
a large flock can be accomplished with a few hens — the same principles 
apply. 

When Prof. Gilbert M. Gowell's sudden death was announced (May 
6, 1908), the poultry world sustained an irreparable loss. He gave more 
than twenty years of his life to the service of the University of Maine, 
during which time he won a reputation which made his work regarded 
by the United States Department of Agriculture as the most important 
ever carried on in this country in poultry experiments. 

Professor Gowell taught the poultry world better egg production, 
and poultry husbandry has greatly profited by his unceasing and per- 
sistent efforts in that direction. 

A year or two before he died, Professor Gowell paid the writer a 
visit, when he explained that he was about to resign his professorship 
of Animal Industry so that he might devote his entire energies to poultry 
investigations and breeding. At that time, he said, he was devoting half 
his time to conducting poultry investigations for the Maine Station, and 
the other half to his private business — the personal management of the 
Go-well Farm. 

Being asked aI)out his work at the latter place, he handed me a little 
booklet primarily used as an advertisement, but which contains much 
information concerning his efforts. Here are a few extracts: 

"For more than twenty-five years I have bred Barred Plymouth 
Rocks for producing good brown eggs, by selections from the general 
stock. While that system of selection gave birds that laid eggs of good 
size, shape and color, there was no means of knowing whether the eggs 
incubated came from hens that were good or poor layers, and it was 
reasonable to suppose that as many chickens came from mothers who 
had laid poorly through the winter, as from those that had laid well. 
Indeed, recent investigations convince me that the eggs from hens that 
have only just gotten well under way laying at the commencement of 
the incubating season, yield more chicks than do those from hens that 
have been laying well since early fall. 

Thoroughly believing in the principle of lireeding performers to 
performers to get performers, I determined to rigidly cull out all non- 
performing hens, and breed only the good layers to the sons of good 
layers to get good layers. In order to do this, in 1898 I devised and 
constructed, at the Maine Experiment Station, fifty-two trap nests and 
commenced the selection of the best laying hens for foundation stock. 

At the end of the year all birds that had not laid 160 eggs were 
rejected, and those that had laid above that number were retained for 
breeding. They were bred to sons of hens that had laid 200 or more 
eggs in a year. 

This work of selection and breeding has been continued through 
every year down to the present time. Before the commencement of this 



CORMXC, EGG ROOK 7 

attempt at improvement, tlic hens liad averaged aljout 120 eggs each per 
year. The averages during the past two years have been above 144 per bird. 
I believe this increase in the average yields, of more than two dozen 
eggs per bird, is the direct result of the system of breeding practiced. 
The blood of the drone and average worker has been excluded for eight 
generations. The best have been bred to the best to get the best. 

So thoroughly did I believe in this work of improvement in breeding 
and its possibilities, that I established Go-well Farm, that I might have 
a great breeding plant of my own, where I could carry forward the 
work in a larger way than I had previously been able to do. 

Go-well Farm consists of about 100 acres, of which thirty acres 
a.re under cultivation or in grass or clover. Twenty-four incubators, with 
capacity of about 10,000 eggs, are used. There are forty brooder houses, 
each 7x12 feet in size, and high enough so a man can stand erect in 
them. Over 100 brooders are used. The house for laying birds is 20x400 
feet in size, and required 100,000 feet of lumber and a ton and a half of 
nails in its construction. Something over 6,000 chickens are raised each 
year, and 2,000 pullets are kept as layers. 

The leading purpose of this plant is the production of eggs for 
human food. They are expressed to market every day when perfectly 
fresh. Business economy demands that the food be changed over into 
as many pounds of chicken and as many dozens of eggs as is practically 
possible. It makes a difference in the balance sheet whether the hens 
have laid ten or twelve dozen eggs each in the year. 

In order to be sure to breed the chickens from the best laying hens, 
I equipped the laying house with 400 trap nests, and they are used exclu- 
sively every day in the year. 

The stock is grown in individual lirooders, in the open fields, on 
clean grass land. In October they are put into laying quarters, in flocks 
of 100 each, with plenty of chance for exercise. They are never shut in 
closely. 

During each of the last two 3'ears 6,000 chickens have been raised 
to maturity at Go-well Farm. About 12,000 eggs were incubated to pro- 
duce them. The eggs were a little more than half hatchalile during 
i\Iarch and April. Those laid in May yielded more chicks. It must be 
borne in mind that these eggs were not from the general flock, but were 
from the hens that had been laying the heaviest during the winter. Tests 
show that the eggs from hens that have laid heavily during four or five 
months do not yield as many chicks as do those from hens that have laid 
but little. 

During the first seven years' work in the development of this family, 
only those hens that laid from 160 eggs upward were used as breeders. 
For the last two years tlie general breeding has been done by selecting, 
in April, the pullets that had laid heavily since November. I made this 
change because it assured birds that had been doing their work in winter, 
when the higher prices for eggs prevail, and I wanted to fix the function 
of early as well as heavy laying. 

It must not be forgotten that the fathers of every chicken grown, 
for eight generations, had mothers that laid from 200 to 255 eggs each in 
a year. There is not a chicken on Go-well Farm but has nine generations 
of this rigid selection of parents behind it." 

Sunny Slope P'arm has profited by Professor Gowell's advice. Al- 
though but three years in harness, the Messrs. Corning — father and son- 
have proved themselves apt scholars, and produced wonderful results, 
although in some ways they have departed from the Gowell Method. 
These departures we note throughout the book. The reader can make 
comparisons, and if he will carefully follow the teachings herein laid 
down, there is no reason wliy equal success should not crown his efforts. 

Michael K. Bover. 




General view of Sunny Slope Farm 

Egg Farming as a Profitable Undertaking 

Egg farming is considered generally to be more profitable than any 
other branch of poultry-keeping, it being reasoned that the profits there- 
from are surer and larger. 

Success in any branch of poultry-keeping, whether for egg produc- 
tion, broilers for the table or exhibition specimens, requires infinite care, 
great regularity and close attention from daylight to dark, for seven days 
in the week and fifty-two weeks in the year. 

The duties in any one branch are so multitudinous and exacting that 
the man or woman who can multiply them by three, or even two, and 
succeed on a commercial basis, is very rare. 

In the limited number of instances where a dual plant has been oper- 
ated at a profit, it has always been a question in the mind of the writer 
if the net returns would not have been much greater had only one brancji 
been attempted. 

Specialization is a characteristic of the age. It has found its way 
into every branch of human activity, with the result that the world is 
passing through the greatest period of its development, in every depart- 
ment. To succeed with poultry, specialization is necessary. 

It is the intention of this book to describe one of the most successful 
egg plants in America, and to show how two novices in the short space 
of three years have built up a plant that is netting a profit of several 
thousand dollars a year — a net profit exceeding $6 per hen. 

This is the plant at Sunny Slope Farm, at Bound Brook, X. J. It is 
owned by Messrs. Edward and Gardner Corning, father and son. 

When they made up their minds to go into egg farming for a living, 
they read everything they could get hold of on the subject, particularly 
the valuable writings of the late Professor Gowell in connection with 
the Maine Experiment Station, adopted what appealed to their reason, 
rejected what did not measure up to standard by their rule, invented 
other plans and methods, and from the whole evolved the Corning Method 
of Poultry Keeping. 

The plant and experiments have cost more than $20,000, but these 
men now have the satisfaction of knowing that what has been a dream to 
thousands is a reality to them, and that they have a business that will net 
them annual incomes on a par with other large and profitable enterprises, 
give them plenty of healthful exercise and absolute independence. 

Any person who will closely follow the simple rules laid down in 
this book can make the same great success of poultry-keeping for eggs 
that Sunny Slope Farm has achieved. 

As Sunnv Slope Farm was built, partially, on a plan originated by the late 
Prof. Gilbert M. Gowell, M.S., in charge of poultry investigations, Maine Agricultural 
Experiment Station, it might be stated that for many years poultry work has been 
carried on at the University of Maine. It was not, however, until 1897 that the 
Station decided to begin a series of poultry investigations on a somewhat extended 
scale. Since 1904 this work has been carried on in co-operation with the Bureau of 
Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture. — Editor. 



lO CORNING EGG BOOK 

Sunny Slope Farm 

Sunny Slope Farm comprises twelve acres of land, the soil being of a 
reddish sand loam. From a line through the centre from east to west, 
the land slopes gently to both north and south. It is on this higher ground 
that the poultry buildings have been placed, and care was taken to have 
every one of them face due south. 

The northern part, which lies alongside the turnpike, is used exclu- 
sively for raising wheat and clover for green food. During the summer 
season the southern part is devoted to the colony houses and range 
for the growing pullets. 

A peculiarity of the farm is that it is not surrounded by a fence — 
there is not a fence on it except those yarding in the runs of the breeding 
and brooding houses respectively. Of course, an enclosing fence has no 
disadvantages, but in this instance it has no advantages, and besides it 
would have cost money which was more needed in other directions. 

The first building as one enters from the road, is the office, feed 
room and chief attendant's home. This is a two-story building, described 
in detail in a later chapter. 

South of this, seventy-five feet away, is the building used as a 
cockerel house, where the young males are housed as soon as they are 
old enough to determine their sex, and prepared for market. 

To the east of the office building is the incubator cellar and brooding 
hotise. This is one of the most perfect houses of its kind in America, 
judging by the results obtained. Out of 3.313 chicks last season, less 
than one per cent, was lost therein. 

In line with the laying houses and to the west thereof, is the breeding 
house, capable of taking care of 350 breeding hens and their mates. 

Twenty-five feet to the east of this is No. i laying house. This 
building is 100 feet long and 12 feet wide, but is to be enlarged this sum- 
mer to 160 feet in length and 16 feet in width, so as to enable it to carry 
1,500 layers. 

To the south of No. i house is No. 2 house, where 1,500 layers 
through the winter months shell out the eggs in close to record quantities. 
After thoroughly testing it from every point, there is not one feature 
in its construction or arrangement that its proprietors would change. 
It is a perfect house for laying stock. 

In front of all these buildings are the colony houses, in which the 
young pullets are matured after being removed from the brooder house. 
There are twenty of these, and they are moved as occasion demands. 

No architect or master carpenter has had anything to do with the 
construction of these houses. The Messrs. Corning did all the work of 
planning the buildings, rmd with the aid of unskilled helpers erected them. 

There is a splendid driven well of sparkling water on the farm, 117 
feet deep, and, by the aid of a windmill and tank, it is piped to all 
necessary parts of the plant. 

There is not a tree on the place and the shade for the growing stock 
has to be artificially furnished. 

Sunny Slope Farm is not a believer in fences. The late Professor. Gowell was, 
according to the Maine Station Bulletins, and, without wishing to criticise the Sunny- 
Slope Farm's ideas in the matter, years of experience in breeding show that fowls 
allowed out in the open, on terra firma, will he more rugged, have a brighter look, 
and suffer less from colds than hens continually housed. The State of Maine is subject 
to Ion"- spells of severe cold weather, with the temperature considerably below zero 
at night, and above zero during the day. and with a good deal of high wind. To 
these laying houses at the Maine Station, the yards are only on the north side, as 
the birds are kept in the building until the weather is suitable for opening the small 
doors in the rear wall. The necessity of getting the fowls out of the open-front house, 
where they are really subject to most of the out-of-door conditions during the day- 
time, is not so great as when confined in closed houses with walls and glass 
windows. — Editor. 



CORNING EGG BOOK II 

Over Six Dollars Per Hen Per Year 

The layers on Sunny Slope Farm are making a net profit of over $6 
each for their owners. This is over the cost of incubating, feeding, 
marketing and hired help. 

No exceptional methods are employed in making this profit. This 
farm was established to produce eggs for table purposes, and this is the 
main source of profit. The surplus cockerels and the pullets after com- 
pleting their laying season are simply treated as by-products, and are 
disposed of as quickly as possible. 

Every effort is bent toward a large production of eggs, especially in 
the winter months, and it is the success which has attended these methods 
which has brought the big margin of profit named. 

Accounts are carefully kept on Sunny Slope Farm, and the profit or 
loss on any day's business can be readily told. These books are kept in 
the same methodical way that everything on the farm is looked after. 

The exact amount of food consumed each day is kept on record. For 
instance, on January 12, 1908, the feed used by 1,953 pullets in the laying 
houses and 210 breeders was as follows, with the cost of same : 

150 lbs. cracked corn and wheat $2.40 

52 lbs. oats .85 

26 lbs. meals $0.44 

13 lbs. ground oats .26 

26 lbs. bran .2,^ 

1 50 lbs. cut bone i .50 

Gasoline for engine .08 

2.6s 

35 lbs. cut clover .35 

Grit, shell and charcoal .15 



$6.40 



This w'as an average day, and shows that the cost of feeding each 
hen runs a little less than .03 of a cent per day in the winter. 

In the summer and fall months the cost for clover or green food is 
practically wiped out, as much other food is not needed to supply the fowl's 
requirements. This reduces the cost to very little above a quarter cent 
per hen per day for feed. 

To keep a pullet for ten months after reaching the laying point at 
this rate will cost 86 cents for feed. To this should be added the cost 
of hired labor, which brings the total cost of keeping a hen on this farm 
through her first laying period, $1.11. 

It requires something less than 40 cents to raise a pullet to the laying 
period, including cost of incubation and hired labor. 

At the present time, summer of 1909, the constant services of two men, 
in addition to those of ICdward and Gardner Corning, are required to do 
the work, and also the services of a boy — one-half of each day — to assist 
in gathering and packing eggs. 

This makes the cost of keeping a pullet up to the point where she has 
completed her first laying season just $1.50. 

It costs approximately 15 cents to raise a Leghorn cockerel to the 
broiler size, when they are worth about 30 cents each, alive. 

The secret in securing the advanced prices is the fact that the Sunny Slope 
Farm caters to practically a retail or select trade. The low cost they record for feed- 
ing stock, or raising pullets to ten months of age, or getting cockerels up to broiler 
weight, can only be obtained by purchasing feed in large fiuantities. 

The smallest details are attended to with fixed regularity, each employee on the 
farm strictly attending to his work. — Editor. 



12 ' CORNING EGG BOOK 

Once a strain of birds has gained a reputation for heavy egg pro- 
duction all the stock raised can be sold at remunerative prices. This is 
particularly true of the females, for which there is a ready market at $2 
each. All the females sold on this farm have been disposed of at this 
figure. 

The pullets last season averaged 143.25 eggs each for the ten months 
from December ist to September 30th, and are doing even better this 
season. 

These eggs were disposed of at prices as high as 65 cents per dozen, 
and never for less than 40 cents, averaging nearly 50 cents a dozen. Con- 
tracts for the entire yield of eggs have been made guaranteeing these 
prices for the next year. 

The product of 1.9.S3 pullets was 279,792 eggs, or 23,316 dozen. 

This gives the following result : 

Revenue 

23,316 dozen eggs at 49c. (average price) $1 1,424.84 

1,900 pullets as breeders, at $2 3,800.00 

800 live broilers at 30c 240.00 

]\Ianure 250.00 

$15,714.84 

Expenditure 

Raising 1,953 pullets to laying point $781.20 

Maintaining 1,953 pullets through laying season of 

10 months 2,167.83 

Raising 800 cockerels to broiler size of 1J/2 lbs 120.00 

Cartons, postage, etc 125.00 

^ — 3-19+03 



$12,520.81 
Leaving a net profit of $6.41 per head of laying stock. 



Premium Prices for Corning Method Cg'gs 

There is always a demand at a big premium over market prices for 
eggs {hat can be depended upon — eggs that are known to be fresh and 
of uniform good quality. 

In the bigger cities this demand is more pronounced than in smaller 
places, but the demand for fancy first-quality eggs is universal. In the 
big cities a premium ranging as high as 40 to 50 cents a dozen is paid 
for eggs of this quality, doubling the retail price of them in the late 
fall and winter months. 

Except in the summer months it is very difficult to get eggs that 
can be depended on for table use. The demand is so great, and the 
price paid so profitable, that many poultrymen cannot resist the temptation 
to mix their first-quality eggs with cheaper ones. 

Several dealers in the East make a practice of gathering the eggs 
in the cold months from the farmers weekly and disposing of them to 
the commission men. These eggs are two or three weeks old, as a rule, 
before they reach the consumer, by which time they are no longer fresh 
enough for table use, and particularly so because they have almost 
invariably been fertilized. Yet they are everywhere sold as "near-by 
fresh" eggs, and are graded ahead of "western fresh," although in reality 
they are seldom any better. 

A New York matron, shortly before Christmas, bought a quarter's 
worth of these eggs at the rate of 60 cents a dozen, for the purpose of 



CORNING EGG BOOK 



13 



making a cake for a special occasion. The batter was prepared and at 
the proper time the eggs, one by one, were broken in ; the first four 
seemed all right, but the fifth was bad, and the whole lot, eggs, batter 
and all, had to be thrown away. 

A grocer in a Jersey city had a call for newly laid eggs for a sick 
patient, regardless of cost, the only stipulation being that they must be 
absolutely fresh. An hour or two later a farmer walked into his store 
with three dozen eggs which he said had been laid the day before. He 
was paid 50 cents a dozen for them and they were sent by special 
messenger to the sickroom, the grocer congratulating himself that he 
had been able to accommodate his customer so promptly. It turned out, 
however, that every one of these eggs was rotten. On investigation it 
was found that the farmer had gathered them the day before he brought 
them in, but they were apparently a lot that hens had been sitting on 
the previous fall but that liad failed to hatch and had not been discovered 
for weeks after. 

It is circumstances such as these that make the housewives of the 
East willing to pay a big premium for dependable eggs. 

Eggs kept in cold storage rapidly lose their flavor. If they are thus 
kept from spring to winter they have a taste akin to a mixture of corn- 
starch and water, often with a little musty flavor added. 



the irregular quaiiiy or Tire oucungs.- as h- mtip- 
<iettllng prices are only ascertatned after the 
inspection of sample lots. There Is pressure 
to move storage eggs, and the tone Its weak on all 
grades unrter fancy. Shite and Pennsylyftnia 
hennery egg s aye flrgi aH the recent advance. 
CnW ,-iia^aw«#WI'*' ilWBB8BBRWBWWK^^ e xtra firsts 

_ ;; _ . ; 50 

cases^rerra firsts delivered at 25V<ic. 

State. ra.. and nearby se- 
lected white, fancy 35 @ 38 

State, .Pa and nearby gathered 

white • 28 @ -34 

Pa brown hennery fancy -Tl fg> ?.i 

Fresh gatliefed UltirH UIBIB" . . . . "" 55™Be 2tj',3 

Fresh gathered firsts 24 <?? 25 

Fresh gathered seconds , 23 @. 23V4 

FreSh gatheretl thirds 20 m 22 

Dirty eggN So. 1 . candled .... 20 fi! 21 

Dirty egRS No. 2 ' 18 ® 19i^ 

Checked eggs, fair to prime.. 17 @ lf)V& 

rjheeked eggs and dirties, inferior 12 @ 13 
ftefrigerator, early packed, fey, , 

season's storage paid 25. (f? 25% 

nefiigeralor firsts, packed 24 (4 24V4 

Keffigeiator .seconds .. 22 @ 2;V. 

Refrigerator thirds 18 @ 21 



a ceo 
Hon 



The quotations on eggs in the New York market of October 17, 1909, are 
here shown. It should be noted that the best prices obtained are more than 
double the poorest price of 17 cents per dozen. 



Every one is suspicious of an egg that is supplied on hotel or res- 
taurant tables. Yet people are willing to pay good prices for this deli- 
cacy if its freshness and quality can be guaranteed. The hotel men 
know this, and eggs that can be depended on have an unlimited market 
at premium prices amongst the first-class hotels and restaurants. 

The steward of a large New York hotel, in common with those at 
the head of other high class restaurants, has had great difficulty in 
obtaining fine-cp_iality eggs for his tables. 



14 CORNING EGG BOOK 

"We don't worry any more," he said tlie other day. "We are now 
getting dependable eggs, and we kuow that every egg that goes on our 
tables is fresh and sweet." 

His eggs are now coming from the Sunny Slope Farm, produced 
by the Corning Method. They are costing him lo cents a dozen more 
than the highest market price for "near-by" fresh eggs, but he is well 
content to pay it. 

One of the stockholders of a prominent hotel in New York ordered 
eggs for breakfast there, and after he had eaten them he sent for the 
steward. 

"Where did you get those eggs?" he asked. "They are the finest 
that I have ever eaten." 

"We are not telling where we get them, but we can supply you with 
them regularly," was the reply. 

The steward had just arranged for a daily supply of eggs from 
Sunny Slope Farm. 

Contracts have been made with hotels for a stipulated number daily, 
the year through, at a premium of lo cents a dozen over the highest 
quoted price for strictly "near-by" new-laid eggs, and a guarantee that 
the price shall not go below 40 cents a dozen during the year. On this 
basis as high as 65 cents a dozen was realized in November and De- 
cember, and the price averaged about 50 cents for the twelve months. 

Even with these terms Sunny Slope Farm cannot begin to keep pace 
with the demand. The largest grocers in New York City, who supply 
the most exclusive trade, recently made an oflfer for the entire output 
of Sunny Slope Farm eggs on the terms above stated, but previous con- 
tracts prevented the acceptance of this ofifer. In the spring of the year, 
when hens are laying at their best, the commission houses pay a sub- 
stantial premium for all surplus eggs from this farm, in spite of the 
fact that the market is at this time fully supplied with so-called fresh eggs. 

The demand for dependable eggs from stock wholesomely fed is 
unlimited among the restaurants in New York and other large cities. 
There is no likelihood of the supply equaling the demand in the next 
decade, the increase in population in the cities more than keeping pace 
with the increased egg yield. 

A much higher price can be obtained by supplying the residential 
trade privately, but the expense of marketing is considerably greater. 
It has the further disadvantage of falling off almost entirely in the 
summer months when the richer city residents close their houses and 
go to their country places or the watering resorts. 

The restaurants in New York which are supplied with Corning 
Method eggs are famous for their egg dishes. Their sweet, wholesome, 
palatable taste is at once remarked. A better price can be and is obtained 
for dishes prepared with them than these same restaurants could 
previously get. 

Sunny Slope eggs, of course, are white in color, and average 25 to 
26 -ounces to the dozen. 

In order to guarantee strictly fresh eggs, the Sunny Slope Farm has 
the eggs collected four times a day. Shipments are made daily. To 
secure such fancy prices, however, it must be understood that good 
business methods had to be employed. Mr. Corning, Jr., secured the 
trade. He proved the quality of his goods. The rest was easy. 



CORNING EGG nOOK 1 5 

M&rketing the E^^s 

Common sense combined with good business metiiods must be used 
ill marketing the eggs, if it is desired to obtain the high prices referred 
to in this book. At Sunny Slope Farm the minutest detail is looked 
after to have the eggs reach the market not only with the best possible 
appearance, but of the highest quality. 

They are packed a dozen in a box, and care is taken that the eggs 
in each box be of uniform size. This does not take much time and it 
counts for a great deal in the looks of the eggs. 

As each basket of eggs is brought from the laying houses they are 
carefully gone over and every particle of dirt is removed. This adds 
much to the appearance of the eggs, and is necessary to prevent the 
contents of the shell from being tainted. An egg-shell is very porous 
and the flavor of the meat therein is readily affected by contamination. 

Up to the present Messrs. Corning have been able to dispose of their 
entire supply to the big hotels, and they have had to use no care to see 
that their customers really get their eggs, for the reason that they are 
actually delivered to them by their own employees. Were they develop- 
ing a retail trade or supplying a market at a distance they would use 
seals on every box, and on each would be printed clearly and plainly 
the fact that the egg was produced by the Corning Method, and on it 
would also be stamped the day on which the eggs were laid. In this 
way a consumer would be guaranteed definitely that he was eating a 
fresh egg. 

The seal is necessary to protect the producer from unscrupulous 
dealers who might refill the boxes with inferior eggs and sell them as 
Corning Method eggs, when they reach the consumer through the 
retailer. 

Trade is attracted, first, l^y appearance ; second, by quality. Care 
is taken to sort the eggs according to size, and to make their appearance 
tempting to the appetite. This gave a reputation that made possible a 
demand greater than the supply. 

Egg Record — January, 1908, to July i, igog 

Dozens Average 

1908. of eggs. monthly prices Total. 

January 2,386 $0.55 $1,312.30 

February 2,440 .53 1,293.20 

March 4.050 .52 2,106.00 

April 3,165 .50 1,582.50 

May 3.574 .45 1,608.30 

June 3.150 .40 1,260.00 

July 2,071 .42 869.82 

August 1,795 -45 807.75 

September 1,176 .50 588.00 

October 787 .55 432.85 

November 1.253 -58 726.74 

December 2,044 -60 1,226.40 

1909. 

January 2,743 -61 1,673.23 

February 2,806 .59 1,655.54 

I\Iarch 4,657 .49 2,281.93 

April 3.639 .45 1,637-55 

May 4.109 .44 1,807.96 

June 3.622 .41 1,485.02 

January i to September 15, 1908, an average of 1.953 layers. 
September 16, 1908, to July i, 1909, an average of 2,215 layers. 



1 6 CORNING EGG BOOK 

September i, 1908, transporting pullets from the range into the laying 
houses was begun. 

From September i, 1908, yearlings were sold as breeders, except those 
selected for the breeding pen. 

The Breed to Keep 

On Sunny Slope Farm only Single-Comb White Leghorns are kept. 
There was no sentiment in the selection of this breed. It was settled 
that the farm was to make a specialty of eggs for table use, and for this 
purpose the weight of opinion and experience seemed to point to the 
White Leghorns. 

There is a difference in the preference of the respective markets 
as to the color of the shells — New York prefers a white shell, Boston a 
brown shell. This preference should be given consideration in the 
selection of a breed. 

Professor Gowell gave the preference to the Barred Plymouth Rocks 
at the Maine Station, and obtained excellent egg results. The average 
of eight years from the Barred Rocks was 134.27 eggs for twelve months 
at the Maine Station, while the Leghorns on Sunny Slope Farm last year 
averaged 143.25 for ten months, at the rate of 171. 9 a year. 

Kept on the same principle as that employed at Sunny Slope Farm, 
these Barred Rocks would probably have done better than they did in 
the Maine Station. Some of the details might have to be changed. 
Each 20- foot roosting closet will hold only about 175 Rocks as against 
200 Leghorns. The amount of animal food might have to be reduced 
to prevent the Rocks going too much to flesh. 

With such simple modifications to meet the characteristics of the 
breed chosen, any of the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte or Brahma fowls, 
as well as other families of the Mediterranean breeds, may be profitably 
kept as egg producers. 

The Rocks will lay eggs somewhat larger, it is claimed, than the 
Leghorns (although this is doubtful) and their cockerels, as well as 
the layers who have passed the profit line, will bring larger returns for 
meat, if they are disposed of for this purpose. 

On no -consideration should half-breeds or mongrels be kept. There 
is no money in them. 

The strain is of much more importance than the breed. A hen lack- 
ing in physical vigor will not make a good egg machine. There are some 
lines of White Leghorns which have been so inbred that they do not lay 
a large number of eggs, and will not produce strong chicks nor give any 
large percentage of fertility. 

Great caution was exercised in this regard by tlie owners of Sunny 
Slope Farm. Their birds are uniformly large in size, have great vigor and 
are believed to be the greatest egg-producing strain in the world. 

Pullets or Yearling Hens? 

Only pullets are kept in the laying houses on this farm. When a 
fowl completes her first laying season, which, with a Leghorn, covers 
about ten months from the time she starts, she is sold off the place. 

Sunny Slope Farm liaving New York City as its market, where the best prices 
are realized for white-shelled eggs, no doubt wisely chose the White Leghorn fowl. 

Professor Gowell, in a report, says: ".\t the time we began this work we were 
carrying three breeds: Barred Plymouth Rocks, White Wyandottes and Light 
Brahmas. With the particular strains that we had of these breeds, the Barred 
Plymouth Rocks seemed the most promising, and the work here reported is with' 
this breed. As the New England market demands large, dark-brown eggs, only 
birds laying such eggs have been used for breeding."— Editor. 



COR XING EGG HOOK 1 7 

unless her qualities are such that she is required in tlie breeding house. 
In this event she is kept a year longer. 

A pullet will invariably lay more eggs than a yearling hen, and she 
w^ill lay them in the winter months, when they will bring the highest 
prices. This has proved true every season on Sunny Slope Farm. 

The first six months of last year the yearlings in the breeding house 
averaged 69 eggs each, and more than half of these were laid in April 
and May. They laid practically none in November or December, not 
being through their molt, and fell right off in July. 

In the same period the pullets shelled out the eggs at the rate of 
105 each, their heaviest month being March. They were laying well in 
November and continued without a break until the following September. 

Both the yearlings and pullets were given the same rations and the 
same general treatment and care, except that the yearling flock was 
smaller and for three months the males ran with it. 

Young hens sell readily as breeders and will bring a better price 
than a two-year-old hen. This is another reason for disposing of the 
pullets at the end of their first laying season. 

In Bulletin No. 130, issued (June, 1906,) by the Maine Station, Pro- 
fessor Gowell says : "For the last seven years we have gotten the first 
eggs when the pullets were from four months and ten days old to four 
months and twenty days old. There is some danger of the pullets getting 
developed too early, and commencing laying too soon for best results, 
under this system of feeding. In order to prevent such conditions, the 
houses should not be located too close to each other, or to the feed 
troughs, and a large range should be given them so they may be induced 
to work, which they will do if given the opportunity early after their 
removal to the fields. Should the birds show too great precocity, and 
that they are liable to commence laying in August, the supply of cracked 
corn in the feeding trough is reduced, or taken away altogether, which 
causes them to eat the wheat, oats and dry meal instead, and they 
continue to grow and develop without getting too fat and ripe." 

House Room and Size of Flocks 

Economy of space and labor is one of the great questions of profit- 
able poultry-keeping. 

The larger the flock the greater the economy. This has been recog- 
nized from the first, and it is for this reason that the typical farmer 

Professor Gowell, in "Poultry Investigations at the Maine Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station," published by the United States Department of Agriculture, says: 
"The cost of housing poultry is a very important item to the poultryman, and tlie 
amount of floor space required by each hen is a question much discussed and worthy 
of the most careful consideration and investigation. 

Each of the pens in house No. i has 160 feet of floor space. When occupied 
by twenty-two birds, each individual has a floor space of 7.3 square feet. Each of 
the seven pens in house No. 2 has 240 square feet of floor space, giving each of 
the fifty pullets 4.8 square feet. In house No. 3 the four pens are twice as large 
as those of house No. 2, each containing 480 square feet. In each of two of the 
pens 100 pullets are kept, having 4.8 square feet of floor space to a bird — just the 
same allotment that is given in the pens of fifty birds in the No. 2 house. The 150 
birds kept in each of the two other pens have only 3.2 square feet to a bird. 

So far as health and egg production are concerned, thus far there is little to 
choose between the pens containing 2,250 and 100 birds, with 7.3 and 4.8 square 
feet to a hen. The fowls in the 1 50-bird pens, for reasons which are not attributed 
to the increased numbers or diminished floor space, did not do so well in 1904-5 
as those in the other pens." 

In 1907 Bulletin (No. T44) Professor Gowell reports "all the hens in the open- 
front houses, in flocks of 50 or 100, averaged 144 eggs each last year, and the birds 
were in excellent health. The front curtains were open all of the time every day, 
except the stormiest in winter." Again, later: "The health of the birds in a flock 
of 150, in comparison with those in the flock of 100 in like-sized pens, was appar- 
ently as good. In the pens of 50, 100 and 150 birds the proportional losses did 
not materially differ, being very small in all pens." — Editor. 



1 8 CORNING EGG BOOK 

has always kept his pouhry in one flock. The old-time farmer, however, 
did not understand the tirst principles of profitable poultry-keeping, and 
consequently his chickens were never considered, and probably were not, 
a profitable asset of the farm. It was known that people living in cities 
and towns with smaller flocks generally secured a much larger egg yield 
per bird. This probably led to the growth of the opinion that hens 
should be kept in small flocks. 

The late Professor Gowell, of the Maine Agricultural Experiment 
Station, was one of the first to realize that fowls could be much more 
profitably kept in larger flocks. He experimented along this line for 
several years and the results of these experiments have been considered 
so valuable that the United States Government has had them distributed 
freely throughout the entire country in the form of special Bulletins. 

Prof. W. R. Graham, of the Guelph, Ontario, Agricultural Farm, and 
recognized as one of Canada's most expert poultrymen, said to the 
writer one day : 

"I am keeping as many as 300 hens in one flock and am having 
splendid success with them. I believe that the large flock is the best 
for profitable poultry-keeping. 

I am afraid, however, to recommend to the Canadian farmers and 
poultrymen that they keep their poultry in large flocks for several reasons. 
One is, the danger that is liable from disease, unless the most constant 
care is given to the birds. Another is, the fact that so few poultrymen 
or farmers will really give their birds the constant care tliat is needed. 
Without care, no plant can be made the highest success. Given the care 
necessary, the larger the flock the more profitable the plant will likely be." 

On Sunny Slope Farm the large flock idea is developed from the 
moment the chicks leave the incubator. One hundred chicks approxi- 
mately are placed in each hover. Three weeks later they are moved to 
the nursery pens, which are also located in the brooder house, the chicks 
in two hovers being combined and placed in one nursery yard. Thus the 
flock has grown to two hundred. 

When they leave the nursery for the colony house the birds are old 
enough for their sex to be distinguished and the cockerels are sepa- 
rated and sent to the fattening pens or to be matured as breeders. This 
usually leaves from 200 to 250 pullets in each two nursery pens, and these 
are combined and put in one colony house. The colony houses as used 
on Sunny Slope Farm are large enough to easily accommodate this num- 
ber of birds. Going through at night with a lantern there was always 
plenty of space, even with so many as 250 birds in a single house. Young 
pullets lie very close together, even in warm weather. 

When the pullets are moved to the laying houses, the number is 
limited only by the capacity of the house, and here again the managers 
of this farm have economized in the matter of space to a point which 
would have been considered suicidal ten years ago. In No. 2 laying 
house, which is 160 feet by 16 feet, there are 1,500 laying pullets. 
Leaving the dropping boards out of consideration, this gives each bird 
a floor space of about 1.7 square feet; but with the dropping boards 
placed three feet from the floor, giving the fowls free access thereunder, 
they should be considered in the floor space, which brings the amount 
for each bird up to about 2.33 square feet. 

This amount of floor space per bird would be out of the question 
if the house was divided into pens of the old-time regulation size and 
the number of birds equally apportioned thereto. One hundred and 
eighty-eight hens in a pen 20 feet by 16 feet would give the same floor 
space to each as to those in the larger house on Sunny Slope Farm, but 
the birds would be a great deal more confined. Each bird would have 
only 35 square yards to roam over, while those in the Sunny Slope 
laying house are accorded 280 square yards. It is true that the latter 



CORNING EGG BOOK IQ 

has to share this space with 1,499 neighbors which slie meets in her 
wanderings from one end of the building to the other, while the former 
would only have to divide up with 187 neighbors. This would not add 
to her comfort or contentment, but the closer confinement would, if any- 
thing, reduce them. A hen seems to enjoy the greater liberty. 

A few years ago it was considered that a fowl should have at least 
10 square feet of houseroom floor space, and Professor Gowell in his 
most radical experiments never considered less than 4.8 feet. This, of 
course, was on the basis of a much smaller laying room. 

In No. I laying house on this farm, which is 100 feet long by 12 feet 
wide, there are 450 laying hens which have a floor space more than twice 
that of the pullets in No. 2 house, or nearly 5 feet. The egg records 
show that there is practically no difference in the yield per hen in either 
house, but if there is any difference it is in favor of No. 2 house. 

This economy in space cuts the cost of housing in two, which is a 
very important consideration as it lessens the amount of capital required 
by just that amount. 

There is no doubt the size of the flocks could be increased much 
beyond the 1,500 point, but there would be little advantage. The housing 
cost would not be lessened to speak of, and it is questionable whether 
anything in time or labor would be saved. 

The number of layers on Sunny Slope Farm is to be increased the 
coming season from 2,000 to 4,000, and the extra housing accommodation 
will be provided by erecting new houses on the same plan as the present 
No. 2 house, with a capacity of 1,500 each. 

Buildings on Sunny Slope Farm 

The buildings on Sunny Slope Farm are put up on a very substantial 
plan and on a principle that is original and unique. 

At the same time there is nothing about them that could be dis- 
pensed with. Economy was kept constantly in mind in their planning 
and erection, but was never allowed to interfere with effectiveness and 
simplicity. 

Much of the wonderful success of this farm as a money-maker is 
due to the principle on which these houses are built. 

Since the above account was written additions have been made to the buildings 
at Sunny Slope Farm, as follows: 

Addition to brooder house 16 x 68 feet, giving accommodation to 7,000 chicks 
at one time, and providing a cellar where sprouted oats are grown in winter for 
green food. 

Addition to breeding house 16x7.; feet, enabling them to carry 900 breeding 
hens and mates. 

Additional laying house 16x160 feet, capable of _ carrying 1,600 layers. This 
is a reproduction of the old laying house and is believed to be the most perfect 
of all known houses for this purpose. 

Farmers' Bulletin No. 357, entitled "Methods of Poultry Management at the 
Maine Agricultural Experiment .Station," says: "During the summer of 1905 the 
management of a commercial poultry plant in Orono built a curtain-front house to 
accommodate 2,000 laying hens. This was built in accordance with unpublished 
plans prepared by the Maine Experiment Station. It repi'esents the latest develop- 
ment of this style of house. The house is 20 feet wide by 400 feet long, and is 
divided into twenty sections, each being 20 feet square. 

At first it was thought the house should be narrow, so it miglit dry out readily, 
but the 20-foot house dries out satisfactorily, as the opening in the front is placed 
high up, so that the sun shines in on the floor to the back in the shortest winter 
days. 

The economy in the cost of the wide house over the narrow ones, when space 
is considered, is evident. The front and back walls in the narrow house cost about 
as much per lineal foot as those in the wide house, and the greatly increased floor 
space is secured by building in a strip of floor and roof running lengthwise of the 
building. The carrying capacity of a house 20 feet wide is 66 per cent, greater 
than that of a house 12 feet wide, and it is secured by merely building additional 
floor and roof. The walls, doors and windows remain the same as in the narrow house, 
except that the front wall is made a little higher." — Editor. 



20 CORNING EGG BOOK 

The nucleus of the principle was discovered by the late Professor 
Gowell. hut it is said he was aliout to abandon one of the essential fea- 
tures of the principle as unworkable, when his end came. That was the 
idea of having lOO lineal feet or more of laying house in one room. The 
Professor experimented for years with it, reluctant to give it up because 
he believed he was on the right track, but was never able to abolish 
draughts entirely therefrom and his birds were always troubled more or 
less with colds. In despair, he advocated a close partition house in his 
latest writings, making the rooms or pens not more than 20 feet long. 

The objections from draughts in the Gowell houses have been met 
and entirely overcome in the Sunny Slope houses, without abandoning 
the important advantages of the single-room laying house. 

Another change in the construction of the Sunny Slope houses com- 
pared with those on the Go-well Farm is that of placing them on posts 
five feet off the ground. This eliminates every possible danger of 
dampness, and with 2,000 layers this winter, notwithstanding the change- 
ableness of the weather, not a single fowl has been found suffering 
even from a cold. 



Fresh Air and Sunlight 



Plenty of ventilation is essential in every house used on a poultry 
farm, from the incubator cellar to the, laying houses. 

When the supply of fresh air in the hen house is limited, when the 
oxygen that the fowls breathe is measured, their vitality is never robust 
and they die prematurely. Constitutional vigor is a matter of fresh air, 
as well as exercise, food and inherited stamina. Heavy egg production 
is principally a problem of how to maintain laying hens in a high state 
of health. 

The oxygen in fresh air helps to maintain robust constitutions in 
the fowls ; it gives red combs and liright eyes, it means little susceptiJMlity 
to disease or colds, and it aids in the assimilation of the food. 

A continual supply of fresh air results in a continual evaporation 
of the dampness in the house. The air exhaled from the fowl is laden 
with moisture from the throat and lungs. In cold weather this condenses 
in an airtight house or one built on ordinary lines and makes the whole 
hotise damp. The unhealthfulness of a damp house is unquestioned. 

Another necessity in a hen house is sunlight — direct rays of the sun. 
Without sunlight no living organism can thrive, and this is true of the hen. 

On Sunny Slope Farm close attention has been paid to these factors. 

The laying and breeding houses are all built on the curtained-front 
principle. In each 20 lineal feet of house there is a curtained window 
3 feet by 9 feet. Medium-heavy cotton duck is used in these windows, 
and it is kept dusted, so that the air can continually circulate through 
it. In the daytime, except when it is storming from the south, these 
windows are opened and the sun can always find its way into every 
foot of the house. 

Owing to the dryness of the atmosphere, not a single comb has 
even been nipped in these houses, and roup has yet to make its entry. 

Sunligiit and fresh air are furnished in abundance, all draughts are 
excluded and the secret of correct poultry housing is the result. 

Although Professor Gowell did not invent the curtained-front idea for a house, 
he deservedly won the credit of greatly improving updn the principle. Since the 
introduction of curtain-fronts, the question of how to ventilate is seldom asked. 
There is no better method of ventilating, nor more sane way of disinfecting a house 
than by such means as will constantly admit the fresh air — through the curtains 
when closed, and through the open space when the cmtains are hune up — and at 
the same time allow the sun's rays to seek every part of the interior. — -Editor. 



rORXTXC, KGC, r.OOK 



21 



In another chapter the metlnod of ventihiting tlic incubator ceUar and 
1)rooding house and admitting the sun to the latter is descrilied. There 
is nothing so good for little chicks as warm fresh air and simshine. 

The temperature does not appear to affect the egg yield in these 
houses. The pullets get their blood warmed early in the morning, and, 
whether it is mild or zero weather outside, they continue to shell out 
the eggs. 



Incubator Cellar 

The incubation and Ijrooding houses on Sunny Slope Farm are built 
in combination, and in outward appearance closely resemble similar 
houses on many of the more successful poultry farms in this country. 
Its interior arrangement, however, is entirely original. The incubator 
cellar is 50 feet long and 16 feet wide, with walls and floors of solid con- 
crete 8 inches thick and with 8 feet between the floor and the ceiling. 
It is very important, in order to secure proper ventilation, to have the 
ceiling high enough. 



••hrrl •' ''■- .^^:;■^:v^l•:.^>•: 



;=0i 






plan of Incatotor Cellar. 



The floor is 4 feet below the ground level, and in selecting a site 
for this house care was taken to pick the dampest spot on the farm. 
In close proximity thereto is a magnificent spring of the purest water, 
and conduits from this spring have been constructed underneath the 
incubator cellar in order to insure the necessary dampness. Water runs 
constantly throughout the hatching season under the concrete floor of 
this cellar. 

Entrance to the brooder house is obtained through a door in the 
vestibule in the west end of the building. From this vestibule are stair- 
ways leading down to the cellar and up to the brooder house. 

Immediately inside of the vestibule is a fireproof chamber for the 
hot-water heater and adjoining is a large bin for coal. 

Care has been taken to guard the incubator cellar against any extreme 

On Sunny Slope Farm, in selecting a site for the incubator cellar, Mr. Corning told 
nie "care was taken to pick out the dampest spot on the farm." The soil of Sunny 
Slope Farm is a very warm, dry gravel and sand loam. Professor Gowell, in Bulletin 
No. qo, says "a damp cellar would be poorly adapted for incubators." In 1905 an incu- 
bator cellar was constructed at the Maine Station measuring 30 feet square, 7 feet 
high in the clear. 5 feet of which is below the level of the outside ground. It is lighted 
by" six three-light windows carrying glass 10 .x 16 inches. The cement walls are 
finished smooth, and the cement floor is slightly inclined toward the southeast corner, 
where the intake of the drain is located, enabling free use of water from hose in 
cleanine- the room. Two chimneys extend to the basement floor, containing ventilating 
flues. The room contains eighteen 360-egg machines, and by a little crowding would 
hold twenty-one. — Editor. 



CORXING EGG ROOK 23 

drops in tempt-raturc during the period that incubation is in progress. 
For this purpose two 2-inch emergency pipes from the heater run the 
whole length of the cellar to guard against freezing temperature therein. 
As a matter of fact, tliese emergency pipes have never been required, 
but the proprietors feel a greater degree of safety than they would if 
they were not there. 

In one corner of the cellar is a dark room for testing the eggs. 
Therein is a counter big enough to take two trays set side by side. As 
the eggs of the one are tested and found fertile they are placed on the 
second tray. If infertile they are placed in a basket on the floor. 

The Brooder Hcuse 

Tlie brooder house is 118 feet long and 16 feet wide, extending 68 
feet beyond the incubator cellar. The first 50 feet, or that immediately 
over the incubator cellar, is the brooder house proper, for in it are the 
hovers where the newly-hatched chicks from the incubators are placed. 
The remaining 68 feet is. strictly speaking, a nursery into which the 
chicks are removed as soon as they are old enough not to require any 
artificial heat beyond the ordinary temperature of the brooder house. 

The floor joists of the brooder house are laid on concrete sills, filled 
in between with concrete on the plan known as "beam filling." Most 
brooder houses have the floor joists laid on wooden sills, which are 
always an invitation to the industrious rat. This little detail makes the 
brooder house at Sunny Slope Farm absolutely rat proof. The north 
and side walls of this house are built in the same way as those of the 
laying houses — that is, 2x4 studs are used, on both sides of which are 
nailed tongue-and-groove boards and heavy roofing" paper, the joints of 
the latter being cemented. The roof is also made in the same way. This 
leaves an open air space of 4 inches in the walls and 10 inches in the 
roof, and makes the houses absolutely weatherproof as far as the north, 
east and west sides are concerned, except for the ventilating windows, 
which are described below and which are continually under control of 
the attendants. 

The front or south wall is built in the same manner, except that 
openings are made for the windows, which are of glass, and the little 
doors opening into the outside yards. Great care was taken in the con- 
struction of this building to have the windows and doors absolutely 
draught proof, particularly the latter, and this has been accomplishecl. 
The little doors are built on the same principle as the door of a refrig- 
erator or safe, so that when closed the outside air cannot find an entrance 
through them. 

Along the back of the interior of this building runs a 4-foot 
passageway throughout its entire length. The brooder section proper is 
divided into fifteen runs of about 3 feet in width and 12 feet in 
length, which are separated from each other by a board 8 inches wide 
and an inch-mesh wire 4 feet high. In the back of these little runs is 
the hover, set on a false floor, 6 inches above the regular floor of the 
building. The lamp stands on the main floor, the chimney coming up 
through the false floor and going into the drum connection of the 
hover. This false floor is the width of the run and about three and one- 

The writer inspected the brooder house on Sunny Slope Farm, and was well 
pleased with the convenient arrangement. With the exception of the exit doors 
for the young chicks (they being entirely too small for a large flock of chicks — too 
apt to cause crowding in a rush to get outdoors), the brooder house is a model. 
The house is constructed practically on the plan of the house built by the Maine 
Station in 1897, and which some years afterward burned down, but the Messrs. 
Corning have made some practical changes which the above explains. Since this 
account of the brooder house at Sunny Slope was written, additional brooder house 
capacity has been provided. — Editor. 



24 



CORNING EGG BOOK 



third feet the other way. Hinged to it is a runway the entire width 
of the run, which gives an easy incline to the main floor of the run. 
This runway may be pulled up by a cord and pulley from the alleyway 
and used as a gate to hold the chicks right up to the hover when desired. 

In each run there is a board next the alleyway, which when lifted 
up permits all the droppings from the hover to be swept into a box, 
which is also specially made the exact width of the run. The hover 
itself may be readily lifted up, as it is not in any way attached to the 
building or floor. This allows all work around the hover to be easily 
done from the alleyway. 

To reach the front of the runs, and the windows in the front of 
the building, small gates have been put in the run fences near the front 
wall, which allows the attendant to pass down the entire south front 
from yard to yard. 

The remaining 60 feet of the brooder house is divided into twelve 
pens, 5 feet in width, with the same sliding door adjustments separating 
them from the alley to make cleaning readily possible. These pens are 
the nursery where the chicks are introduced at three weeks of age, and 
where they learn to live without the brooder in the warm natural tem- 
perature of the room. 



Roofing paper- 
J ' Doardin^- 
A\r space 

2'x4' |5tll - 




1 ^ ^(((^m^^^^(^(i(<^M(««(^ 



8 Co^crc^e Wial 



I Boarding 
R-oofin^ paper 






^ 



cc- a- 



Flooring 
^ Tioof/ng paper 



Ex 16" rloor J^oista/ 



Detail of floor and wall construction of the Brooder House 



Much thought was given to the matter of ventilation in this house. 
If large, healthy, well-developed chicks are to be had, it is very essential 
that their little lungs should be constantly fed from the moment they 
leave the incubator with an abundance of pure, fresh air. At the same 
time no draughts must be allowed to touch them. 

The main ventilators in this house are in the highest point of the 
east and west corners of the building respectively. These ventilators 
are two windows about two and one-half feet square, hinged at the 
l)ottom and opening from the top. They are fitted with a set of cords 
and pulleys so arranged that an attendant can open them or close them 
at will from the alleyway. They have "V"-shaped solid sides, built out 
so as to enclose the windows when open in such a way that all air must 
be taken in or out from over the top. thus preventing any cold air 
striking down directly on the chicks. By keeping the windows on the non- 



CORNIXG EGG HOOK 



25 



weather side, or the side opposite to that from which tlie wind or stonii 
IS coming, open, the foul air is sucked over the top and out witliout 
creatmg- a draught. The south windows through whicli the light is 
obtamed are hinged at the top and open at the bottom in the same way 
as catliedral windows. They can he hooked out more or less as required. 




Finished Flooi 



Details of wire divisions for Brooder Pens 



Along the entire length of the house are run five 2-inch hot water 
pipes, placed alongside of the north wall about two feet from the floor. 
The hot water system is regulated so as to never allow the temperature 
in the brooder house to drop below 70° F. When the water indicator 
shows between 180 to 200° F. in ordinary April weather, the temperature 
in the house can be readily kept above that point. 

In case the house gets too warm, the fire in the boiler is not dropped 
l»ut the amount of fresh air is increased. It is realized that if healthy 
chicks are to be raised it must lie done with pure air. In the Svmny 
Slope Farm brooder house no consideration is overlooked to reproduce 
summer conditions as nearly as possible. 



Colony Houses 

The pullets are lirought to maturity in the colony houses, twenty 
of which were used on this farm last season. These houses have a floor 
space of 6 x 10 feet. They are 6 feel high in front and 4 feet at the back, 
with an ordinary shed roof, except that it does not project either in front 
or in \he rear. 

The framework is built on three skids. The outer ones of these 
are made of 3x4 studding, rounded at the ends in order that they may 
slide readily, and are 12 feet in length, projecting a foot at either end 
beyond the sides of the house. The centre skid is made of 2 x 4 studding. 

These three skids are securely fastened together by four pieces of 
2x4 studding. Across this is nailed the floor, which is made with inch 
stufif, tongue and grooved. The upright studs are made of 2x4 stuff. 
This framework is covered by matched boarding, and over the roof 
is placed heavy asphalt roofing, the joints of which are cemented. 

In the front of the house is a door through which the attendant may 



The colony system for growing stock is practiced quite extensively throughout 
New England on all the large poultry farms, and where svich range can be had 
over rich grass land, it is a wonderful help in growing the youngsters. The objec- 
tion, however, to most of these ranges is that there is too little natural shade for 
hot weather, and artificial arrangements must be provided. Professor Gowell was a 
great believer in this colony plan for developing pullets. The cockerels should be 
sejiarated from the pullets as soon as sex can be distinguished. — Editor. 



CORMXG EGG BOOK 



27 



enter. 2 feet wide and 5 feet higli. On either side of this, and well up 
from the floor, are windows 45 x 27 inches. These windows are covered 
with medium-weight cotton duck and open outward. The advantage in 
lia\ing them open thus is that when open they act as an awning to 







Front Elcvafidn. 



Oide Elevarion. 



w 



1 



.^^ 



-^> 



% 



% 



m 






Derail of Window/ 



Plan 



Plan and Elevations of Colony House 



e.xclude the sun from the coop and keep it much cooler than it other- 
wise would Ijc. Wire netting is also placed over these windows on the 
inside. 

The pullets come in and out of this house through two small doors 
on either side of the main door. 

With each four of these colony houses is provided a shelter 12 feet 
long and 9 feet wide, made of a framework covered with asphalt roofing. 
The front of this shelter, which faces north, is 3 feet high, and 2. feet 
at the rear. 



Main Laying Houses 



The main laying houses are 160 feet long and 16 feet wide, facing 
due south, without outdoor runs. 

Theoretically, there would he no economy in having more than 1,500 
hirds in one Hock, and this size house has been found abundantly large 
for this number of layers. True, this breaks all previous theories as to 
the tloor space required for each bird, but in practice it has been found 
ample. 

It is also better to have the building only 16 feet wide instead of 
20, because the sun cannot be made to readily reach all parts unless the 
front elevation is made unnecessarily high. If the ceiling is high enough 
to allow the attendants to go through the houses without stooping, and 







an i 






' !1 



:^^4] 






--^i 



T 



"\^[ 



^^] 



s o 



CORNIXG EGG I'.OOK 29 

it certainly should he, the sun has no difiiculty in reaching- to every foot 

of a house 16 feet wide. It is. therefore, economical to make it tiiat 
width instead of narrower. 




The Main Laying House 

The foundation is placed on 8-foot cedar posts, placed 3 feet in the 
ground on a large rock or cement bottom. These posts are 8 feet apart, 
and are braced at the ends and cross tied at the corners. They are also 
braced both ways every 50 feet. This prevents the building from rock- 
ing. On top of these posts are placed 4x4 sills, and on these the frame- 
work rests. 

The floor joists are 16 feet long, of 2x10 timbers, and are placed 
3 feet apart. The elevation of the building is 7 feet in front and 5 
feet behind. rhe uprights are 2x4 studs, placed 3 feet apart. At the 
corners tlie studs are doul)led and spiked. The plates are also made of 
2x4 studs. The rafters are made of 2x 10 studs and have no projection 
beyond the plates. This saves something in lumber, and makes it easier 
to make the walls at the back air tight. 

The floor is doubled. The under floor is made of rough inch- 
boarding, running lengthwise of the house. On top of them is placed 
a covering of heavy asphalt roofing paper, every joint of which is care- 
fully cemented. This prevents any draughts coming up through the floor. 
On top of this, laid crosswise of the under boards, is another floor of 
No. 4 matched tongue-and-grooved flooring. 

This floor is not only absolutely air tight, but on account of its 
construction and the fact that it is 5 feet from the ground, it is proof 
against rats, skunks, weasels or vermin of any kind that prey on poultry 
or are a nuisance around a poultry house. 

On the outside of the uprights, on the back and sides, inch-boards 
of good quality lumber are nailed. These are planed on the outside and 

Professor Gowell, on the Go-well Farm, built his houses 20 feet wide, believing 
it was better economy than having them narrow, and, in Bulletin No. 144, says: 
"Nearly two years' use of this wide house shows its advantage over the narrower 
ones to be greater than was anticipated when it was planned. Its great width and 
the low-down door in the back wall make it much cooler in hot weather." 

Sunny Slope Farm does not have outdoor runs, but the Maine Station has. and. 
especialh' during July and August. Professor Gowell said the fowls delight to go 
out into the yards early in the morning. On Sunny Slope Farm, however, open 
sheds are constructed under the house (something on the order of the plan sold 
by the Philo System), where the fowls can have a change of diversion — scratching 
in the loose soil. 

No .elass is used in the laying houses on Sunny Slope Farm, but at the Maine 
Station the front side of each section has two windows of twelve lights of 10x12 
glass, screwed on, upright, 2 feet 8 inches from each end of the room. They are 
,3 feet above the floor. The sjiace between the windows is 8 feet 10 inches long, 
and the top part of it down from the plate. 3^ feet, is not boarded, but left open 
to be covered by the cloth curtain when necessary. 

Another change that Sunnv Slope Farm has made in constructing the laying 
houses after the plan of the Maine Station, is that they have the house all in one 
room, placing 1,500 birds in one flock, while the Maine plan has the building divided 
l)y tielit board partitions in twenty sections, each section being 20 feet long. — Editor. 



30 



CORNING EGG BOOK 



covered with heavy two-ply asphalt roofing paper, well nailed down and 
carefully cemented at the joints. The nails have large galvanized heads, 
and are used so generously as to prevent laulging. 

On the inner sides of the uprights another covering of heavy roofing 
paper is used, the joints carefully cemented, and over this is placed 
matched lumber. This gives an air-tight 4-inch vacuum, which is at 
the same time the warmest and coolest wall known,- on the back and 
sides. 

Under the floor, the back and sides are all boarded in and covered 
with paper, as in the upper part of the house, except that only a single 
covering of boards and paper is used. 

Except for the window openings, the front wall of the house is 
constructed in the same way as the other walls. 





fl'-r hoarding 
^l~~flciaUn^ paper 
l^-IBdardiog, 






Cccfion 



Details of inner and outer doors of Laying House 




The roof is made of seven-eighths sheathing, on top of which is a 
layer of two-ply asphalt paper, and on the under side of the rafters is 
nailed another layer of roofing paper and sheathed. 

Care is taken to have the paper lap at all the corners and joints 
and around the ridges, so as to prevent any draughts from getting 
through at these points. 

There are eight windows on the south side of the house, and each 
of these is 3^ feet by 9 feet. They are 3 feet from the floor and run 
up to the plate. The object of this is to keep the draughts from blowing 
in on the floor, striking the fowls and scattering the litter. 

The window frame is made of 4-inch stuff, seven^eighths of an inch 
in thickness, with two 4-inch supports placed so as to divide the window 
into three 3-foot sections. These come against the upright studs of 
the building, the latter not being cut out or weakened in any way to 
reduce the strength of the building. 

This frame is covered with medium-weight cotton duck. Cheese 
cloth is too flimsy, and the duck lets in abundant air if care is taken to 



CORNING EGG BOOK 



31 



brush the accuinuhited (kist off at regular intervals. Not a square inch 
of glass is used on the plant, outside of the brooder house and office 
and feed buildings. 

A water shed 8 inches wide is built over each window, extending 
2 feet beyond the opening to prevent driving rains or storms from the 
south from beating into the house. The tar paper from the roof extends 
down over this storm shed. 

The windows may be opened or closed as desired by being hinged 
at plate. They are kept open throughout the year, except on cold, 
blustery days and on winter nights. 

Across the front of the window openings is placed i-inch mesh wire 
netting to prevent the fowls flying out when the cotton-duck window is 
swung up. 

Roofih6 paper 

V Boarding 

2"x 16' Rafters 



2x4" Plate 



E'x4"srcj<JJin| 







ci.x4"5VudSiy\ 



-Hir>de,S 
Roofing paper 



Elevation 



fScction 



Detail of Ventilating Window 



The entrances to these houses are at each end. Seven steps lead to 
a platform 5 feet square, large enough to set feed pails on, which is 
surrounded on two sides with a hand rail. The doors are made of heavy 
matched lumber, of two thicknesses, with roofing paper between, the 
inner boards being nailed diagonally with those on the outside. The door 
is put together with one and one-half inch No. 12 screws. This makes 
the door very substantial. It is 6^ feet high and 3H feet wide. 

A second door is also provided, which opens outward, the main 
door opening in, the upper half of which has panel removed and is 
covered with wire mesh. At the bottom it is tight boarded. In milder 
weather the double door is opened, and the latter is used as a ventilator. 

The roosting closets are built differently to those in any other house 



COR XING EGG BOOK 33 

known to the writer. They are huilt in 20-foot sections, with close 
l)oard partitions extending 12 inches Ijeyond the dropping boards, which 
are 6 feet wide. 

This extra width in the partitions is very important, as it obviates 
entirely the dangerous drauglits which so baffled the late Professor 
Gowell in his large flock houses. When cross winds are blowing the 
fowls will go back into these closets to work and sun themselves. 

The dropping boards are placed 3 feet above the floor, leaving plenty 
of room for the hens to work in the litter thereunder, and sufficient for 
the attendant to easily get under to gather the eggs that may be laid in 
the litter. A hen dearly loves to round out a nest in the straw litter and 
deposit her egg therein. It also gives the sun a chance to reach every 
corner of the floor from the front to the back at some period of the day. 

There are two sets of roosts in each closet. These are made of 
five perches of 2 x 2 stuff, rounded at the top, nailed to crosspieces. 

The first perch is placed 9 inches from the back wall, and the suc- 
ceeding ones are 13 inches apart, measuring from centre to centre. This 
distance has to be regulated by the variety kept. 

The crosspieces to which the roosts are nailed are securely hinged 
at the back, a foot up from the dropping board, and are hooked up to 
the ceiling when the dropping boards are being cleaned. They are sup- 
ported by a leg a foot high in front, which keeps the perches up the 
required distance at roosting time. 

There are openings to the yards under the house, which are placed 
under the roosting boards at the rear. There are five of these openings 
in each house. Boxes are built up around them a foot high to keep the 
litter in. A runway therefrom leads to the ground 5 feet below. After 
about May 15th all the layers are allowed free range, but spend a great 
deal of the time under the house, the floor of the house providing the 
necessary shade to protect them from the sun and keep them cool and 
comfortable. 

From the time the pullets are put into the laying house until warm 
weather in the spring comes they are never within less than 5 feet of 
Mother Earth. But they are as happy and contented as can be, and sing 
and lay eggs each livelong day. 



The Breeding House 

This is built in exactly the same way as the laying house, except 
for the fact that it is only 50 feet long. 

The small doors through which the fowls reach the ground are kept 
open every day, in order to allow the fowls free access to the open yards 
except on very wet or stormy days. 

It is the rule on Sunny Slope Farm that the fowls must not be exposed to wet 
and stormy weather. Poultrymen are apt to be too careless in this matter. A fowl 
is just as miserable when exposed to drenching rains, or snowstorms, or heavy wind- 
storms, as would be a human being, and an uncomfortable hen will receive a severe 
check in her laying. It is important that the hens be kept comfortable. — Editor. 



coRNixc; KGc; I'.ooK 35 

The Cockerel House 

The house in whicli the young males are phiced for fattening or 
l)ringing to matm-ity for 1)reeders has a length of 30 feet and a width of 
12 feet. It is built on posts, with the floor 5 feet from the ground and 
the superstructure put together in the same way as in the lirooder and 
laying houses. 

The dropping platform is also arranged in the same way as in the 
other houses, but the roosts are made 6 inches in width instead of only 
2 inches. This is done to prevent the young birds from pressing on their 
breastbones, which ar.e very tender in growing stock. In front of this 
house is a wire pen, 15x30 feet, covering over the top to keep out the 
sparrows. 

The cockerels get into this yard through two small doors opening 
to a runway down underneath the house. Including the space under 
the house, the birds have a yard 25 x 30 feet. In the warm weather 
they spend a great deal of time in the shade and away from all draughts 
under the house. 

The fences of these runs are made by putting in posts at suitable 
distances apart and over this is placed the wire netting. The boards upon 
the yards are used in order to keep the young males as ignorant as pos- 
sible of what is going on in the world beyond the runs. 



The Feedhouse and Workshop 

This is a building two stories in height, with an area of 20 x 30 feet. 
At the present time the upper story is used as a dwelling by one of the 
attendants, the stairway leading thereto being from the outside. On the 
ground floor are the food bins for each variety of grain and meal used 
in. the fowls' rations. 

The machinery used in preparing the feed is all of the approved 
type. The gasoline engine is a 4 H. P. and furnishes the necessary 
energy for the bone cutter and the mash-mixing machine. The bone 
cutter was specially built for this plant, the ordinary sizes being too small 
to grind expeditiously the 175 pounds of bone used daily. 

The mixing machine stands in close proximity to the bone cutter. 
This machine was also specially built for this plant, and is constriicted 
on something the same lines as a cement mixer. The various ingredients 
of the mash are placed therein in the required proportion, and are mixed 
much more thoroughly than they could possibly be by hand, except in 
small quantities. The thorough mixing of the mash is regarded as one 
of the secrets of its effectiveness in producing large quantities of eggs. 

A small shed, 12x16 feet, built of rough lumber, is conveniently 
placed. It is used for the storing of the droppings, and the side boards 
are placed on the inside of the upright studs in order that they may not 
be pushed off by the weight of the manure. If these droppings are 
sprinkled occasionally with sand or ashes there will be no odor from them. 

The ice house is also one of the buildings on the plant, and is used 
for the preservation of the green bone until such times as it is required 
for food. 

Professor Gowell used vacated brooder houses for his cockerels. When the 
chickens reached the age of nine or ten weeks, and the cockerels weighed a pound 
and a quarter to a pound and a half, they were placed hy themselves into vacated 
brooder houses, one hundred to a house. Each house has a yard in front, about 
twelve feet square. — Editor. 

A great point made bv the Sunny Slope Farm is the thorough mixing of the 
mash food. This is highly' important, so that the different ingredients will be avail- 
able to all the fowls. The workshop arrangement on this farm is very complete. — 
Editor. 



CORNIXG F.GG liOOK 37 

Operating the Incubators 

Tlic arrangciiicnt of the inculjators in the cellar is worth some con- 
sideration. In pur^-hasing the machines care must be taken to buy them 
built right and left. This will permit the lamps of the two machines being 
placed side by side and means a considerable economy in time in attending 
the lamps as well as floor space. They are placed side by side along the 
north and soutii sides and close to the wall. This arrangement leaves a 
good aisle through the centre for the operators. When installed they are 
carefully leveled with a spirit level. 

Two tables are provided for convenience in turning the eggs. These 
are made three feet wide and a little longer than necessary to take two of 
the incubator trays side by side. They are built on revolving castors and 
their height is gauged so as to make them a trifle lower than the tray 
slides in the machine. 

By having two of these tables much time can be saved. While the eggs 
on one are being turned those on the other can be left to cool. By taking 
trays out of alternate machines the time for cooling can be increased as 
desired. Last season 5,000 eggs were placed in the incubators in this 
cellar, and from these 3,313 flufl^y, bright, lively chicks were placed under 
the hovers in the brooding house. 

On the leg of each machine is placed a tag, on which is provided blank 
spaces in which the following information is filled in : 

1. The day and hour that the incitbator is set. 

2. The number of eggs placed in the machine. 

3. The day, which will be the tliird day, when the eggs are turned for 
the first time. 

4. The day, which will be the fourteenth day, when the eggs are tested 
out. Many incubator men test their eggs for the first time all the way 
from the third to the seventh day, but no test whatever is made on this 
farm until the fourteenth day. The principal reason given for testing 
on the seventh day, or earlier, is that the eggs taken out may be saved 
to boil for the newly-hatched chicks when they come. There is not 
enough in this, however, to take chances of losing valuable chicks 
thereby. In addition it saves time and labor. 

5. The number of infertile, doubtful and fertile eggs found in the 
machine as a result of the test on the fourteenth day. The infertile 
eggs, of course, are removed from the machine and the doubtful ones 
are marked with a cross, so that when the hatch is off the operator can 
go over the remaining eggs. This enables him to perfect himself in the 
testing art. 

6. The date, which will be the eighteenth day, when the incubator 
is closed and not interfered with again, imtil the doors are opened to 
remove the newly-hatched chicks. 

Most people believe that an incubator does not begin to hatch until 
the twenty-first day. This is not always correct. The chicks begin to 

In this connection Professor Gowell says, in Farmers' ])unetin Xo. 357: 
"There are many makes of incuhators on the market, most of wliich will give 
fairly satisfactory results. The Maine Station has not tested many makes of incu- 
bators, and very likely some of the makes not tested would prove as satisfactory 
as the make used. Where many machines are used the hand turning of the eggs 
absorbs considerable time. Several turning devices are in vogue and equally good 
hatches have been obtained with them as when the eggs have been turned by hand. 
Machines that have artificial turning shelves will not hold quite so many eggs as 
when flat shelves are used, but the saving of time compensates for this. 

Whatever make of incubator is used, pains should be taken to become thor- 
oughly acquainted with the machine before the eggs are put into it. It is advisable 
for a person not familiar with the use of an incubator to run the machine empty 
for several days before filling it. After the eggs are put in, changes and adjustments 
should be made with the greatest care for fear of e.xtreme results. By the use of 
an incubator it is possible to determine exactly the time when the chickens shall 
be hatched." — Editok. 



38 



CORNING EGG BOOK 



leave the shells on the twentieth day if the germs are strong and the 
temperature has lieen kept at proper height and the eggs were fresh 
when placed in the machine. If the temperature has been allowed to- 
run low, the hatch is retarded and the chicks are apt to be not so strong 
as are those that come out on the twentieth day. 

7. A final space is left in which is indicated the number of strong^ 
healthy chicks hatched. Any weaklings are quickly disposed of. 

This enables the operator to keep an accurate record of the work 
of his machine from season to season, and to correct any defects that 
may be observed. 



Ventilation and Moisture of Incubator Cellar 

It is impossible to properly ventilate many of the incubator cellars 
for the reason that the ceilings are too low. When a large number of 
incubators are being run there must be sufficient height to readily get 
the impure air from them out of the room. The windows in the hatcli- 
ing cellar at Sunny Slope Farm, which act as ventilators, are hinged 
at the bottom and drop into a "V"-shaped box with solid sides, forcing 
the air in or out, as desired, over the top, and not letting in cold gusts 
of air to strike directly on the machines. 

Night and day these windows are kept at least slightly open, so that 
there is constantly a considerable change of air, insuring freshness. Fresh 
air in the machine is very helpful to the growing germ. The poisonous 
gases from the lamps must be driven out of the cellar or anaemic chicks 
will result every time. 

The temperature is kept as nearly even as possible. It should never 
be allowed to go above 70° or below 40° F. 

Moisture, and a large supply of it, is very important. In this cellar 
earthen pans are filled with water and placed on the floor almost directly 
Ijelow each pair of lamps, pushing tliem sufficiently far back against the 
wall as to be out of tlie way. If the atmosphere is particularly dry, 
after turning the eggs at night the concrete floor is thoroughly wet by 
sprinkling it with a watering can. This gives a relative humidity identical 
with that which occurs in natural incubation, being about 60°, and also 
provides the same amount of evaporation as in an egg under a hen. 

This method of supplying moisture has proved most successful, for 
when the chicks are hatched the incubators will fairly run water, and it 
is no uncommon thing for the attendant to be obliged to take the hinges 
off the doors leading into the egg chamber as well as those through 
which the chick drawers are taken out. 

."Mutiny Slope Farm has a greater belief in moisture than is general among 
poultrymen. Notwithstanding that the cellar on this farm is built upon a damp- 
location, additional moisture is supplied by the pans mentioned above. This, too, 
despite the fact that the incubators used are of the "no-moisture" type, which goes 
to prove a theory the writer has held for years, that the "no moisture" claim is not 
founded on fact — that all depends upon surrounding conditions as to the amount 
of moisture to be used.- — Editor. 



CORNING k(k; hook 39 

When to Hatch 

April and May are considered the best hatching months on Sunny 
Slope Farm, and the nearer the middle of April that the first hatches 
come off the better. Professor Gowell recommended April and May 
as the right time for hatching Plymouth Rocks. He knew a thing or two 
about bringing on young fowls, but in his writings he never gave the 
information the emphasis it deserved. 

To be able to delay hatching until April and May has several advan- 
tages, among which are the greatly increased percentage of fertility in 
the eggs and the fact that when the chick is old enough to be moved into 
the colony house settled weather conditions are obtained. 

The Corning Method of feeding is described in another chapter, 
which brings the pullet to maturity in about five months. Chicks hatched 
on this farm in the middle of April are laying by the middle of Sep- 
tember and continue to do so throughout the ensuing ten months. If 
they are hatclied earlier and forced along under this Method, they will 
commence laying earlier and are very liable to molt, which, with the 
Leghorns, means about two months' absence from the nests. It also 
necessitates the feeding of the pullets for two months, during which 
they are producing nothing. 

With the heavier American breeds, such as the Plymouth Rocks and 
Wyandottes, maturity can be reached almost as quickly. We believe the 
reason Professor Gowell did not emphasize more strongly the hatching 
of chicks in April and May was because he knew the average poultry- 
man would not give the care to his young flock nor force them along as he 
did. Under ordinary feeding methods it takes from seven to eight 
months to mature a bird of either the American or Mediterranean breeds 
and get them started laying. 

A pullet rarely begins to lay in very cold weather, and if a supply 
of winter eggs are to be had she must "be started to work on the nests 
before the thermometer goes regularly below freezing at night. If she 
is hatched late she must be forced along quickly to the laying point to 
have any returns from her in the winter months. 

Taking Care of the Chicks 

The hovers are operated with the same care and in the same method- 
ical way as the incubators. A tag is placed on the wall of the alleyway 
back of each brooder yard, and on this is indicated the number of chicks, 
the day and the hour they were placed in the brooder and the losses 
from any cause as they occur. These tags are also filed away from season 
to season for reference, and they form a valuable guide as to what can 
be banked upon. Less than ten per cent, of all chicks placed in the 
brooder house were lost from all causes last season. 

On account of lack of room in the brooder house, a number of 

Professor Gowell's main idea in having May hatches is that they yielded more 
chicks, there being better fertility, and natural brooding conditions are better. In 
Bulletin No. 130, referring to tests made at the Maine Station, in order to study 
the hatchability of the eggs from the same lot of hens through their first laying 
year, a pen of fifty pullets was set apart for the purpose. They were hatched late 
in May and commenced laying in October, continuing laying moderately through 
November and neceraber. The fifty birds were mated in November with two cock; 
erels that did not quarrel, and these matings continued through the ten months' 
test. — Editor. 

Records shown the writer, upon his visit to Sunny Slope Farm, gave a very 
small loss in the brooders. In the spring of 1909 7.505 chicks were hatched at Sunny 
Slope Farm. There were 1,192 deaths in the brooder house, and i\\) to August 15, 
1909, 481 deaths on range from crows, rats, etc. — Editor. 



CORNING KC.C. noOK 41 

chicks had to be removed when they were between three and tour weeks 
old to the colony houses to make room for new hatches from the incu- 
bators. Among these there was a considerable mortality, as they were 
not sufficiently feathered to provide the necessary warmth in the cold 
nights. The total loss of birds in the colony house from hawks and 
other causes was about 400. There were 899 cockerels raised to suffi- 
cient size for broilers or were matured for breeders. The pullets placed 
in the laying houses numbered 1,953. Of these 453 were placed in what 
is known as No. i house and 1,500 in No. 2 house. 

It is a fixed belief at Sunny Slope Farm that the chicks should be 
handled as little as possible : so when a change is being made from one 
place to another it is accomplished by removing the sliding board, open- 
ing into the alleyway, which is then blocked so that the chicks can only 
go in the one desired direction. The board opening into the nursery 
pen to be occupied is raised, then the attendant walks behind these chicks 
and quietly and easily moves them along until they are in their new 
quarters. When removing them to the colony house a box is placed at 
the little door leading from the house to the yard. In this box is another 
door corresponding to that in the brooder house, and the front of the 
box is made of wire mesh. The chicks are quietly driven into the box 
and when it is comfortably filled the door is closed and they are carried 
down to the colony house, which is to be their home until they are suffi- 
ciently matured to take their places in the laying house. To facilitate 
the emptying of the boxes just described, doors are placed at either end. 



Feeding Newly-Hatched Chicks 

The cliicks hatched at Sunny Slope Farm are not fed for forty-eiglit 
hours after they come out of the shell. The last act which the chick 
performs before breaking the shell is to absorb the yolk, which makes 
food unnecessary for at least two days. 

The third day after hatchmg, the chicks are fed every two liours, 
of a good commercial chick food, not heavily, but just enough to enable 
them to readily fill up their crops. The feed is placed on the floor in 
close proximity to the hover. The fifth day after hatching they are 
allowed to run in tlie little hover yard and then their feed is thrown to 
them in litter. 

This litter is made of wheat chaff, or the screenings taken out of 
the bottom of the hay mow. If neither of these is available, straw is 
cut fine with a clover cutter and is used as a substitute. The litter 
should be put in deep in these yards — at least a couple of inches of it. 

Professor Gowell's metliod of feeding newly-hatched chicks is as follows (Bulletin 
No. 130): 

"The best method of feeding young chicks is at present a matter of some 
uncertainty. Many different kinds of food and different ways of feeding give good 
results. 

One condition appears to be imperative, and that is, that the young things, 
until they are at least three weeks old, be not allowed to overeat. We have guarded 
against this by watching them closely and examining their crops for emptiness just 
before feeding time. This enables them to eat four good meals a day and be hungry 
at feeding time. Where regular full meals are given they are allowed at the troughs 
only a short time. A long-drawn-out meal to enable them to clean up the dishes 
impairs their digestion, and ruin follows. 

Where small broken grains and meals are kept constantly within reach of the 
young things, either in the litter or small troughs, the crops never appear to be 
empty, neither are they ever crammed full, as they are when fed at regular hours, 
and yet the birds live well and seem to thrive when they are within easy reach of 
food all of the time. 

At the present time the Station is studying young chick feeding closely, for 
it is the most difficult feature of the whole poultry industry. We can now give no 
better method than that practiced in raising the chicks during this and the last 
season, because by it few birds have been lost and good thrift has been secured. 

Infertile eggs are boiled for half an hour and then ground in an ordinary 



42 CORNING EGG BOOK 

While the bulk of the feed is fed in this litter, a small portion is 
scattered around the hover where no litter is kept, so that any weak 
chick may get it without too hard work. 

From the start the chicks have water before them, placed in sanitary 
drinking fountains which are thoroughly washed and refilled three times 
a day — first thing in the morning, at eleven o'clock and again at three- 
thirty o'clock. THese hours are not set arbitrarily, but were decided 
upon from the fact that it is at these hours approximately that the chicks 
drink the greatest quantity. 

When the chicks begin to work in the litter, they are fed but three 
times a day instead of every two hours. While not overfeeding, enough 
grain is thrown into the litter so that the little fellows in scratching will 
always find something to reward them. 

About this time beef scraps are added to the ration, and care is 
taken that these are ground fine. This is fed at noon. To each lOO 
chicks at the start a couple of little piles are thrown into the litter. 
Each pile contains about one handful. The amount of beef scrap is 
increased day by day until six handfuls are fed to each pen of lOO chicks. 

The chicks are fed in this way until they are six weeks old. Then 
they are given wheat and cracked corn. This change is made gradually 
by mixing with the chick feed, each successive day feeding less of the 
latter until it is taken out altogether. 

meat chopper, shells included, and mixed witli about six times their bulk of rolled 
oats, by rubbing both together. This mixture is the feed for two or three days until 
the little things have learned how to eat. It is fed sparingly, in the litter and 
sand on the brooder floor. 

About the third day they are fed a mixture of hard, fine broken grains, i. e., 
cracked corn, wheat, millet and pinhead oats, as soon as the birds can see to eat 
in the mornings. This is fed in the litter, care being taken to limit the quantity 
so they shall be hungry at ten o'clock. Several of the prepared dry chick foods have 
been tested. They are satisfactory when made of good, clean grains without grit. 
The grit and charcoal can be supplied at less cost and must be freely provided. 

At ten o'clock the rolled oats and egg mixture is fed in tin plates with low- 
rims. After they have had the food before them five minutes the dishes are removed 
and they have nothing to lunch on, except a little of the fine broken grain which 
they scratch for. At one o'clock the hard grains are again fed, as in the morning, 
and at four-thirty to five o'clock they are fed on the rolled oats and egg mixture, 
giving all they will eat until dark. 

When they are about three weeks old the rolled oats and egg mixture is grad- 
ually displaced by a mixture made up of two parts, by weight, of good clean bran, 
four parts corn meal, two parts middlings or red dog flour, one part linseed meal and 
two parts screened beef scrap. This mixture is moistened just enough with water 
so that it is not sticky, but will crumble, when a handful is squeezed and then 
released. The birds are developed far enough by this time so that the tin plates 
are discarded for light flat troughs with low sides. 

The hard broken grains may be safely used all the way along and the fine meals 
left out, but the chicks do not grow so fast as when the mash is fed. There seems 
to be least danger from bowel looseness when the dry grains only are fed, and it 
is very essential that the mash be dry enough to crumble, in order to avoid that 
difficulty. Young chicks like the moist mash better than though it was not moistened, 
and will eat more of it. There is no danger from the free use of the properly made 
mash, twice a day, and being already ground the young birds can eat and digest 
more of it than when the food is all coarse. This is a very important fact and 
should be taken advantage of at the time when the young things are most susceptible 
to rapid growth. But the development must be moderate during the first few weeks. 
The digestive organs must be kept in normal condition by the partial use of hard 
foods, and the gizzard must not be deprived of its legitimate work and allowed to 
become weak by disuse. 

By the time the chicks are five or six weeks old the small broken grains are 
discontinued and the two litter feeds are wholly of screened cracked corn and whole 
wheat. Only good clean wheat, that is not sour or musty, should be used." — Editor. 





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44. CORNING EGG BOOK 

Feedin^f Pullets While on Ran^e 

At Sunny Slope Farm the pullets are moved from the brooder house 
to colony houses and are given free range when they are six weeks old. 
From that time until they are mature enough to be placed in the laying 
houses they are made to do a lot of hustling for their living. Some 
poultry breeders throw corn to the pullets in the vicinity of their quarters 
early in the morning. This is a serious error. At this stage in a chick's 
life it is greatly to its advantage in developing stamina and hardihood 
to make it hustle for its food. The pullets also enjoy ranging, as can 
be seen by watching them playing tag with each other and chasing the 
worms and insects. 

In the mornings the grass is thick with insects and there are always- 
plenty of pickings to be had if the pullets are forced to look therefor. 
To satisfy their appetites they are kept busy until about eleven o'clock, 
when they come into the. shade for rest. It is late in the afternoon before 
they are given any grain, when it is scattered on the ground near the 
colony houses. This is a mixture of two-thirds whole wheat and one- 
third cracked corn. At this time they are given all of this that they will 
pick up clean. 

Inside each colony house is a feeding trough for mash, and this is 
supplied in such quantities that it is never entirely consumed. Every 
afternoon at three o'clock fresh mash is placed in the trough, and what- 
ever little may be left over from the day before, is mixed therewith. 

To provide a sufficient amount of grit two basins are placed at each 
colony house and are always kept filled. Care is always taken to use a grit 
which carries a large percentage of lime. This helps to make bone, and 
the pullets come into laying without causing any trouble. The pullets 
also have a wonderful affinity for hard coal ashes, and large quantities of 
them are regularly provided. It is surprising the amount of ashes the 
pullets will consume. 

This .system of feeding sends pitllcts to their quarters with full 
crops, which is very essential if rapid growth is to be had. 

There stands in each house an automatic drinking fountain, which 
holds five gallons of water, so that it has to be filled only every other 
day. This affords a considerable saving in labor. 

In Bulletin No. 130 Professor Gowell says: 

"When the cockerels are taken out for finishing, the pullets of the same age 
are moved to the grassy range, still occupying the same portable houses in which 
they were raised. At this time the method of feeding is changed, and dry food is 
kept by them constantly, in troughs with slatted sides and broad detachable roofs, 
so it may not be soiled or wasted. The troughs are from 6 to 10 feet long, with 
the sides 5 inches high. The lath slats are 2 inches apart and the troughs are 16 
inches high from floor to roof. The roofs project about 2 inches at the sides and 
effectually keep out the rain, except when high winds prevail. 

The roof is easily removed by lifting one end and sliding it endwise on the 
opposite gable end on which it rests. The trough can then be filled and the roof 
drawn back into place without lifting it. This arrangement is the best thus far 
found, for saving food from waste and keeping it in good condition. When dry mash 
is used in it there may be considerable waste by the finer parts being blown away. 
When used for that purpose it is necessary to put it in a sheltered place out of the 
high winds. 

In separate compartments of the troughs, they are given cracked corn, wheat, 
oats, dry meal mixture, grit, dry cracked bone, oyster shell and charcoal. The dry 
meal mixture is of the same composition as that fed to the laying hens. The 
troughs are located about the field in sufficient numbers to fully accommodate all 
of the birds. 

The results of this method of feeding are satisfactory. The labor of feeding 
is far less than that required by any other method followed. The birds do not 
hang around the troughs and overeat, but help themselves, a little at a tim.e, and 
range off, hunting, or playing and coming back again, when so inclined, to the food 
supply at the troughs. There is no rushing, or crowding about the attendant, as is 
usual at feeding time where large numbers are kept together."- — Editor. 



CORNING EGG i;0( ) K 45 

Feeding Laying Pullets 

When the pullets are put into the laying houses they still receive 
their main feed of grain at night. Six quarts of wheat and corn, varied 
in proportion according to the weather, for each hundred pullets are 
scattered in the litter an hour before sunset on clear days, and fifteen 
minutes earlier on cloudy days. The litter is at least eight inches deep 
and preferably of wheat straw. The grain is thrown on top of this, 
and being fed in this quantity the pullets are able to till up quite easily 
at just the time when you want to get their crops chock-full. As she 
moves and scratches, the pullet buries the remaining grain in the litter. 
When she leaves the roost in the morning she has to work like a beaver 
to get out the remaining grain, which gives her the needed exercise and 
■starts her blood well in motion for the day. 

By thus feeding the extra quantity at night the attendants are saved 
the necessity of another trip with the morning ration of grain, and the 
burying of it in the litter. It is necessary that this feed more than any 
•other should be so fed as to make the fowls work hard for it, and con- 
sequently it must be buried deep in the litter. At eleven o'clock a small 
quantity of oats is fed in the litter ( two quarts for each hundred 
hens). In very cold weather a little buckwheat is mixed with the oats 
on alternate days. Buckwheat is too fattening to have a part in the 
daily ration. 

The mash troughs which are placed under the dropping boards, 
two troughs being provided for each 20- foot section, are tilled with mash, 
twenty-two pounds of mash being given to each 200 hens, at three o'clock 
in the afternoon. This mash is made by thoroughly mixing the following 
ingredients in the proportions named : 

Wheat bran 8 parts 

Ground oats (not fine ) 4 parts 

Wheat middlings i part 

Old process oil meal i part 

Gluten meal (highest quality) i part 

Corn meal i part 

Cut green bone 16 parts 

This mash must be thoroughly mixed, so as to have the juices from 
the animal food taken up entirely by the ground grain. Absolutely no 
water, only the animal juices in the cut green bone is used in making this 
mash. 

It is sweet-smelling and palatable enough looking to tempt any man. 
When ready for the hens there is not the slightest appearance of the green 
bone in it, all these particles having been thoroughly covered by the 
adherence of the meals. 

Where it is not convenient to cut green bone, beef scraps may be sub- 
stituted. Where small flocks are being handled, the mash can readily be 
mixed in a tub — or large pan — with a wooden paddle. This method was 
practiced at Sunny Slope Farm until the flock became so large that labor- 
saving machinery became an absolute necessity. 

Professor Gowell's method of feeding laying stock and that followed by Sunny 
Slope Farm are practically the same. There is a difference in the Gowell mash, 
as follows: 

Wheat bran - P^'^ts 

Corn meal ' f ^' ' 

Wheat middlings ' P'^']^ 

Linseed meal ' 1*'*' 

(^.luten meal ' P^^t 

I>eef scraps i ' 1' ' ' j ' ' ' L ''■^'^ j 

The mash contained one-fourth of its bulk of clover leaves and heads obtained 
from the cattle barn. The clover was covered with hot water and allowed to stand 
for three or four hours. The mash was made quite dry, and rubbed down with the 
shovel in mixing, so that pieces of clover were separated and covered with the 
ineal. — Editor. 



46 



CORNING EGG BOOK 



Feeding Cockerels for Broilers 



At six weeks of age, as a rule, the cockerels arc transferred from the 
brooding house to the fattening pen, or just as soon as their sex can be 
surely determined. The Leghorn cockerel is very precocious and develops 
the masculine traits at a much earlier age than those of American or 
heavier breeds. 

The first thing in the morning the cockerels are fed a mixture of 
grain, composed of two parts of cracked corn and one of wheat. This is 
thrown on the floor, on which no litter is placed, as it is desirable that they 
should do as little moving about as possible. They are given all they will 
eat up clean. 

At ten-thirty o'clock they are given a bountiful supply of green food. 
At three-thirty o'clock the mash boxes are filled full and they are given 
all of this they will eat. This mash is made in the same way as that 
described for the laying pullets, except that the proportion of corn 
meal is very considerably increased. 

This method of feeding has been found superior to any of those 
which use large quantities of milk in the mash, as it produces a broiler 
the meat of which is sweeter and more juicy. It has also been found 
more effective in pushing them to maturity. 



Feeding the Breeding Stock 

The birds in the breeding house are fed in exactly the same manner 
as those in the laying houses. That this method is correct is amply 
proved by the fact that in the past two seasons, since it has been adopted, 
the fertility of the eggs has averaged 90 per cent, or better, and the 
germs have been exceptionally strong. The chicks from these hens have 
great vigor and vitality, and grow rapidly. It keeps the males as well 
as the females in a strong, healthy condition, and does not make them 
too fat. 

To secure a heavy supply of eggs the hens nnist be well fed, but 
to have a high percentage of fertility it is important that they should 
not be allowed to become overfat. 

Bulletin No. 90 of the United States Department of Agriculture states: 
"A very large proportion of the cockerels raised in New England are sent to 
the market alive, without being fattened. Quite extended experiments at the Maine 
Station with many birds, in different years, indicate very clearly that keeping the 
cockerels for a few weeks with special feeding will add materially to the selling price. 
Not infrequently this will make the difference between loss from the low price 
obtained for slow-selling unfattened birds and the profit from comparatively quick- 
selling specially fed birds at a much higher price. The higher price is due partly 
to the increased weight and partly to the superior quality of the well-covered soft- 
fleshed chickens. As the bulletins containing the results nf these feeding experiments 
with cockerels are out of print, the following brief summary of the results obtained 
is given : 

The number of pounds of grain required to produce one pound of gain in fat- 
tening cockerels was ascertained in experiments comparing the effect of housing, the 
effect of age, and the effect of skim milk. The grain mixture used in these series of 
experiments was the same, consisting of 100 pounds of corn meal, 100 pounds of 
wheat middlings and 40 pounds of meat meal. This was fed as a porridge thick 
enough to drop but not to run from a spoon." — Editor. 

Care is exercised on Sunny Slope Farm that the hens are kept in good condition 
without becoming overfat. Like the layers, they are kept active. The high percentage 
of fertility proves that their method in this particular is correct. — Editor. 



C(1RNING EGG HOOK 47 

Feeding Hens Through Molt 

At Sunny Slope Farm no hens are carried tlirougli tlie molt except 
those required for breeders. As soon as the pullets finish their first 
laying season, which lasts approximately ten months, they are sold at 
once for breeders. There is always a demand for these birds. 

Care must be taken in feeding a molting hen not to let her take 
on fat. At this period in her life a hen is much less active than when 
she is laying, and is much given to "standin' 'round." It is therefore 
necessary to see that all the grain is buried deeply in the litter. The 
amount of cracked corn given is materially lessened and the quantity of 
mash feed is cut down by at least one-half. 

If the hen is going to feather well and keep her strength some 
animal food is necessary, but she does not require it in so large quan- 
tities as when being fed for eggs. With the exceptions noted, molting 
hens are fed the same as layers. 

When the hen begins to lay, the amount of mash is increased to the 
requirements of the hen, gradually, until it reaches the point of the 
laying ration. 



Mash — Morning or Night? 

It is a much disputed question whether mash should be fed in the 
morning or at night, but on Sunny Slope Farm it has been definitely 
answered to the satisfaction of its proprietors. 

Professor Gowell used to feed his layers twice a day only, and kept 
the mash always before them. On Sunny Slope Farm better results 
have been obtained by feeding the mash in the late afternoon. 

To keep her body in a perfectly healthy and natural condition, the 
hen must spend the greater part of the day in activity. If she is per- 
mitted to cram her crop with mash in the early morning she will lie 
around until the middle of the day or later, in a semi-dopy, sluggish 
condition. 

The theory of the "morning mash" poultrymen is tliat by giving the 
hen warm mash in the morning it heats her blood and makes her more 
comfortable. This is a fallacy. It does not send the blood coursing 
through her veins nor make her nearly so comfortable and happy as to 
be forced to hustle, and hustle hard, for her morning meal. 

If a hen is going to lay well she must be sent to roost with a full 
crop. For this reason, on Sunny Slope Farm she is given the mash late 
in the afternoon, and this is followed a short time before she goes to 
roost with an abundant feed of grain. Before she starts to pick the 
grain at all her crop is full of mash, but there are always a number of 
small cavities into which the hard grain can be pushed, which puts her 
to bed with a full crop of egg-making m.aterial — "It works while she 
sleeps." 

Molting is a period that is a great strain upon the vitality of the fowls, and in 
order to carry them through safely it is necessary that their feed be of a more 
stimulating nature than when they are in laying condition. This fact is plainly 
exemplified at Sunny Slope Farm. — Editor. 

On this point, in Bulletin No. 90, Professor Gowell says: "Years ago the 
'morning mash,' which was regarded as necessary to 'warm vip the cold hen' so she 
could lay that day, was given up, and the mash was fed at night. The birds for 
several years prior to 1903 were fed daily throughout the year as follows: Each 
pen of twenty-two received one pint of wheat in the deep litter early in the morning. 
At 9.30 A. M. one-half pint of oats was fed in the same way. At i P. M. one-half 
pint of cracked corn was given in the litter as before. At 3 P. M. in winter and 
4 P. M. in summer they were given all the mash they would eat up clean in half 
an hour." — Editor. 



48 CORNING EGG BOOK 

Fresh Cut Bone 

Fresh cut bone is a valualjle egg producer, and an average of more 
than an ounce a day is fed to the layers and breeders at Sunny Slope 
Farm. It forms half of the mash mixture, and the hens are given all of 
this they will eat at one feeding. 

Green bone is cheap in price and highly nutritious, easily digested 
and heartily relished by the fowls. It is stimulating to the egg-producing 
organs, but more in the way of strengthening than simply inciting to 
greater activity. The feeding of it is not followed by reactionary results, 
as is the case when condiments are used. 

It not only imparts strength to the egg organs, but it contains in 
about equal proportions the same elements as the egg. ^ Consequently, 
it is a valuable food. It has a noticeably favorable effect upon the 
fertility and hatchability of the eggs and upon the chicks after they are 
hatched. 

Great care must be exercised in the selection of bones and meat put 
into the cutting machine. Unless this is done it is a very simple matter 
to give the fowls an aggravated dose of diarrhea, and diarrhea caused 
in this way is practically incurable. From a tinancial standpoint, it is 
much better to kill the fowl than to try to doctor her back to health. 

The bone and meat scrap as it is supplied by the butcher is gone 
over piece by piece, and all the salt or putrid pieces are thrown to one 
side. No chance is taken of allowing any meat that has been in brine 
to get into the hen's mash. 

The attendant soon becomes quite expert in selecting the fresh from 
the salt bones. If the flavor of the eggs is to be maintained, care must 
be taken that no tainted bone or meat are used. 

The bone is weighed out in exact proportion in preparing it for the 
mash, and as much bone is used as all other ingredients in the mash 
combined. This gives the laying stock something more than an ounce 
per head each day. 

Green Food 

All tiie birds on Sunny Slope Farm are given an abundance of 
green food, the supply starting when they are three days old and con- 
tinuing until they are finally disposed of. 

The little chicks are given grass and clover cut fresh every morning 
and reduced to lengths of about one-eighth of an inch. This is thrown 
into the litter in abundant quantities and they are allowed to eat it at 
will throughout the day. As soon as the chicks are removed from the 
brooder house they are placed on range, and of course get their own 
supply of green food. 

When the pullets are placed in tlie laying house the green food has 
to be supplied to them. This is obtained by sowing a sufficiently large 
patch of ground with winter wheat in the late summer. This comes up 
very readily and is cut and fed in large quantities every morning, at 
least a bushel basket packed down being given to each 200 hens. 

In all the Maine Station feeding formulas Professor Gowell does not include 
green cut bone. While the writer has never read or heard of his opinion on this 
article of food, it is known that Professor Gowell personally preferred beef scraps. 
Green bone should be fed the day it is cut, and care should be taken that no tainted 
bone or meat is used. This is a hard matter to avoid where a large amount of bone 
daily is needed.- — Editor. 

Professor Gowell was a firm advocate of clover. He said: "Poultry keepers do 
not begin to realize how valuable a food we have in clover." Clover supplies the 
much-needed mineral elements (ash) so necessary to the vigor of the new-hatched 
chick, and that much-desired mineral element must be in the egg from which the 
chick is hatched. — Editor. 



CORNING EGG BOOK 49 

When this wheat gets covered by snow so that it is not cutable, 
green food is suppHed by feeding short cut clover or alfalfa which has 
previously been gathered and cured. This is prepared for the fowls 
daily. It is placed in large tubs and over this is poured boiling water 
through a watering can. It has been found that the clover takes up water 
much more evenly when it is thus sprinkled on than when it is poured on. 
Sufficient water is used to thoroughly moisten it. 

Then the tub is covered with burlap or old sacking and allowed to 
stand for thirty minutes. This limit of time is very important, for the 
reason that clover or alfalfa becomes brownish in color as well as soggy 
if allowed to steep longer, and it is not nearly so palatable to the hens. 

The quantity of water used in making this green food mixture is 
not always the same, for sometimes the clover will suck up a good deal 
more moisture than it does at other times. The weight of the food 
is always more than doubled by the addition of the water. 

The yards of the breeding pens are plowed as soon as they can be 
worked in the spring and are sown heavily with oats. The oats grow 
very quickly and after they have a fair start they will beat the hens, 
what is eaten down during the day being fully made up by the growth 
over night. 

In the winter and early spring months the breeders are supplied with 
green food in the same way as the layers. A large amount of green food 
fed to the breeding stock adds greatly to the strength and fertility of 
the eggs. To the stock in confinement in the summer and to all the 
birds in the winter and early spring months the green food is fed to 
them warm at nine o'clock each morning. 

Much has been written about sprouted, or "processed" oats, but the 
whole matter is very simple. A frame made of flooring, or any boards 
4 or 5 inches wide, and set upright, gives the growing bed. 

Roofing paper, laid on level earth, makes a good bottom ; concrete 
or board floors are equally good. In any event, the water should be 
allowed to drain away. 

Frames 3x6 feet are used at Sunny Slope Farm, but any desired 
dimensions can be made. 

Dry oats are spread in the frames, not over one inch in depth, and 
are thoroughly and evenly sprinkled with cold water every day, for 
ten to fourteen days, when the green sprouts are about six inches long. 

A dark, cool cellar is best adapted for this operation, though sheds 
or other buildings can be utilized. 

Oftentimes, as the oats swell and sprout, there will be upheaving 
spots, or islands, showing an uneven surface over the bed. These 
"islands" should be most thoroughly soaked with water, which will in a 
day or two bring the whole bed to a level growth. In bulk, this process 
produces a full four parts for one part planted, and makes a most excel- 
lent green and oat food. Better results are obtained by following this 
plan than other methods. 

Drinking* Water 

Chemical analysis shows that more than three-fourths of an egg is 
composed of water. It is therefore essential that the fowls should be 
given an abundant supply of water, that it should be pure, and placed 
before them in such a way as to prevent their fouling it. At Sunny 
Slope Farm the water is given in automatic fountains which hold about 



Professor Gowell considered water one of the greatest, if not the greatest, "egg 
foods'" that could be given hens. In his class in the University he urged a constant 
examination of the drinking fountains, that they not only are filled, but that the 
water in them is fresh and clean. — Editor. 



50 CORNING EGG BOOK 

five gallons apiece. A sufficient number of these are placed in each 
house to meet the requirements of the day. In the laying and breeding 
houses this is given in the morning, and in the cold months it is put in 
the fountains boiling hot. 

This meets all the advantages claimed by the advocates of warm 
morning mash in heating up the fowl's system if it has been chilled 
through the night. It has the same effect upon the bird as a cup of hot 
tea or coffee has on a man whose system has become chilled from ex- 
posure or other causes. Together with the work the hen has to do to 
dig her breakfast out of the litter, it sends the blood circulating rapidly 
through her veins and makes her active and lively almost as soon as 
she is off the roost. 

If cold water is given, the pullet will stand around dumpy, often 
for a couple of hours after leaving the roost in the morning, and much 
of the advantage that has been obtained by discarding the morning mash 
will be lost. 

After a little experience the amount of water that the hens require 
can be readily gauged, so that the fountains are practically empty at 
Tiight._ 

Young chicks are given water simultaneously with their first food, 
and plenty of it is always before them. Water is kept in each of the 
colony houses for young stock and replenished just as often as the 
fountains are empty — about every other day. 



Charcoal, Grit and Oyster Shell 

Charcoal is kept regularly before the fowls. It is fed in automatic 
hoppers, which are filled once a week. It does not affect all breeds alike, 
but it seems to make the Leghorns on this farm susceptible to colds, 
and for this reason it is not kept constantly before them, unless a hop- 
perful lasts them a week. The hens are very fond of it, however, and 
this supply usually is consumed in a couple of days. 

Charcoal has no equal as a bowel regulator, and it purifies the crop 
and keeps it sweet. Only coarse charcoal is used, as there is less waste 
in it and the fowls seem to prefer it. 

The hens have free access to grit all the time, and care is taken to 
secure a grit that is really sharp, that does not crumble, and that carries 
a stiff percentage of lime. Do not make the mistake that a limestone is 
desirable. 

Coarse oyster shell, perfectly free from dust and fine particles, is 
also kept at all times in front of the fowls. If there is a good percentage 
of lime in the grit used, less oyster shell will be required. Growing 
birds also need it for bone-making material. Good shells cannot be had 
on the eggs unless plenty of lime is supplied, and a good shell adds 
materially to the appearance of the eggs. 



E^^s for Hatching 



As is stated in another chapter, the layers are disposed of imme- 
diately at the close of their first laying season, or when the birds are 
between fifteen and sixteen months old. This is true of all the stock 
that is kept for the production of eggs for domestic purposes ; but each 
season a sufficient number of the best pullets are selected and transferred 

Professor Gowell preached: "Keep clean water, charcoal, granulated bone, oyster 
shell and sharp grit always before the chicks: and cracked bone, oyster shell, grit 
and water before the hens all the time."'- — EniTOR. 



CORNING EGG BOOK 5 I 

to the breeding house, for the eggs of yearling hens hatch stronger and 
better chicks than those of pullets. 

No trap nests are used on this farm for the reason that it is be- 
lieved they interfere to a greater or lesser extent with the laying of the 
"birds. The Leghorn is a very nervous fowl, and the closing of the 
confining door of the trap nest always has a tendency to keep her in a 
nervous state. This is not conducive to a big egg yield. 

Notwithstanding this, the proprietors of the farm believe that they 
are able with close accuracy to select their best layers for the breeding 
pen. Indeed, when the egg yield given in detail in a previous chapter 
is considered, it would seem that there were no drones in the laying 
houses. Every bird on the farm carries a year numbered leg band. 

With these yearling hens are mated carefully-selected cockerels, one 
for every fifteen hens. No attempt is made to divide these breeders 
into flocks, but all run together in the one room and yard. Cockerels 
are used rather than cocks because experience has proven that they 
throw a larger percentage of pullets. The experience on Sunny Slope 
Farm backs up this theory, only one-third of the chicks hatched in the 
last season being males. It is also believed that cockerels produce a 
larger percentage of fertilitj'^ than can be obtained from older males. 

The birds are not mated until within ten days or two weeks of the time 
that it is desired to start the incubators. Experience has proven that 
Leghorn eggs are fertile within three to five days after mating. 

The eggs produced by birds mated this way are gathered at regular 
intervals and placed in turning machines, being carried so as to lie on 
the end and not on side. They are turned regularly every day until they 
are placed in the incubator. This is done to prevent the germs adhering 
to the side of the shell. 

The sooner an egg goes into the incubator after being laid the 
better. At Sunny Slope Farm an effort is made not to have the eggs 
over two days old. 

Some breeders believe that a larger percentage of fertility may be 
obtained if each male was given his own mates. It would involve con- 
siderably more labor, however, and as the eggs from the breeder pens 
on this farm have given better than a qo per cent, fertility, and some have 
gone as high as 95 per cent. With strong, lively, fluffy chicks, it does not 
seem that any mistake is being made in placing all the breeders in 
•one room. 

Last season the first chicks were brought out in March, Intt many 
of these molted after they had laid for a few weeks in the fall. It has 
been decided that in the future all the stock on this farm will be hatched 
between the loth of April and the loth of June. 

This is not only the best period to hatch Leghorns for winter eggs, 
but it is the natural period, and the eggs are always more hatchable and 
produce better chicks — chicks that live and thrive — than either earlier 
or later. 

Sunny Slope Farm does not use trap nests, believing that it makes the Leghorns 
too scary. The experience of the writer, however, not only proves that Leghorns very 
quickly get over their nervousness when trapped and handled a few times, but become 
very tame. 

Professor Gowell was a staunch believer in the trap nest, and had between 400 
and 500 nests for the 2,000 to 2,500 hens at the Maine Station Farm, and 400 traps 
on his own Go-well Farm. It is the only absolutely sure way to pick out drones. 

Sunny Slope Farm estimates that to trap nest 5,000 hens would cost at least $1,000 
•a vear labor, which is one reason wliv thev do not do it. — Editor. 



52 CORNTXG EGG BOOK 

Cleanliness 

Only five birds were lost from all causes after tlie pullets were re- 
moved from the colony to the laying houses on Sunny Slope Farm last 
season. This is attributed to the absolute cleanliness which is main- 
tained there. Cleanliness is a vital element in chicken raising. 

The dropping boards in the laying and breeding houses are cleaned 
every day, the droppings being carefully stored in a shed specially 
provided for the purpose. The drinking fountains in these houses are 
washed and scoured with a brush every morning. This removes all the 
slime which naturally clings to the sides from the water. The nests 
are gone over every day, and any filth which may liave been taken into 
them by the fowl is removed. Excelsior has been found capital material 
to use in the nest boxes. It is clean and sanitary. 

The birds are not allowed to roost anywhere except on the perches 
provided for that purpose. This prevents the birds inclined to steal 
their roosts from befouling any section of the house except the dropping 
boards, and helps to maintain the general cleanliness. 

Every few days the canvas drops which act as windows are brushed 
with a stiff whisk-broom to remove any dust adhering to them and which 
may prevent the free access of the outside air. 

No disinfectants or lice killers are used, for the reason that they 
have never been required. The absolute dryness of the house probably 
makes it uncomfortable for lice. At any rate, they have never yet 
appeared in the houses on this farm. 

When the laying stock is disposed of in the fall the laying houses 
are thoroughly cleansed. All the litter is removed and the floors are 
swept. Then the entire interior is gone over with a mixture of kerosene 
and crude carbolic acid. New litter is placed on the floor and the 
houses are ready for another flock of laying pullets. At the same time 
the nest boxes are all removed, cleansed and painted with the above- 
named mixture. 

The colony houses are all cleaned out at least twice a week. There 
are no roosts in these houses, and consequently the litter has to be 
removed at every cleaning. The hover parts of the runs in the brooder 
house are scraped and thoroughly cleaned every day while they are in 
use. Tn the yards covered with litter the floor is swept and everything 
removed every three weeks, or at the time the chicks are moved to the 
cold hovers to make room for another lot. Tiie alleyway in this house 
is regularly swept and the hot-water pipes are frequently dusted. 

At the end of each hatch the incubators are thoroughly gone over. 
The lower diaphragms, drawers and trays are carried outdoors and laid 
in the sun. When thoroughly dry they are swept with a stiff brush 
until every foreign substance is removed from tlicm. 

All this detail is gone over regularly. Older poultrymen do not 
think such close attention to this matter of cleanliness is necessary, but 
here there are very fixed opinions thereon. 

All who visit Sunny Slope Farm mark the order of cleanliness that is kept. The 
writer never saw cleaner houses, and this is remarkable, too, considering the large 
number of fowls that are housed all the time. Without strict cleanliness it would be 
impossible to keep such a number of birds in the pink of condition. — Editor. 



CORNING EGG ROOK 53 

Punctuality and Regularity 

It has been said that the hen is a systematic animal. One thing is 
very certain — she works on time. Close attention to this characteristic 
of the hen has been one of the important factors in bringing success 
to Sunny Slope Farm. Everything Lhere is done by the clock — a large 
eight-day one, which hangs in a prominent place in the workshop. 

Following is the day's schedule : 

Between five-thirty and six o'clock every morning in summer, and 
as soon as it is light in winter, the attendants open the house and put 
water — boiling" hot in winter — into the drinking fountains. 

At nine o'clock green food is fed, and the first gathering of eggs 
follows. 

At ten-thirty o'clock green food is given the cockerels. 

At eleven-thirty oats are fed, sometimes mixed with buckwheat, and 
the second gathering of eggs follows. 

At two-thirty o'clock the third gathering of eggs is made. This is 
always the principal collection of the day. 

At three o'clock in the winter months mash is placed in the troughs. 
In the summertime it is fed at four o'clock. 

At three-thirty o'clock the cockerels are given their mash ration. 

At five o'clock in the summer grain is fed in the litter. In the 
wintertime this is varied to make the feeding one hour before sunset, in 
order to give the fowls plenty of opportunity to fill up before it becomes 
dusk. 

According to the weather the houses are closed for the night, and at 
dusk a final careful search for eggs is made, not only in the nest boxes, 
but particularly in the litter. 

At seven-thirty o'clock the houses are again visited and all birds 
not so roosting are placed on the perches. 

This schedule is adhered to rigidly throughout the year, nothing 
whatever being allowed to interfere with it. 

This is another great secret of success. It was no easy task to get such a large 
farm like Sunny Slope down to such a good system. The poultrymen who will "go 
and do likewise" will find that in poultry culture there are no more important acts 
than punctuality and regularity. — Editor. 



Index 



Page 
A 

Air, fresh 20 

Appearance 15 

B 

Barred Plymouth Rocks 16 

Beef scraps 45 

Bone, fresh cut 48 

Brahmas 16 

Bran, wheat 45 

Breeding house 33 

Breeding stock, feeding 46 

Breed to keep 16 

Broilers, cockerels for 46 

Brooding houses 21, 2$ 

Brown eggs 16 

Buildings 19 

Business methods 15 

c 

Care of chicks 39 

Cellar, incubator 21 

Cement floor 23 

Charcoal 50 

Chicks, care of 39 

Chicks, feeding 41 

Cleaning eggs 15 

Cleanliness 52 

Clover 45 

Cockerels 18 

Cockerels, feeding 46 

Cockerel house 35 

Colony houses 25 

Commission house orders 14 

Concrete 23 

Corn meal 45 

Cost of feed 11, 12 

Cut bone 45, 48 

D 

Damjjness 20, 21 

Dating eggs 15 

Draughts 20 

Drinking water 49 

E 

Egg farming 9 

Egg fertility 16, 21, 37 

Egg prices 12 

Egg profits 12 

Egg record 15 

Eggs, cleaning 15 

Eggs, cold storage 13 

Eggs, color of 14, 16 

Eggs, dating 15 

Eggs for hatching 50 

Eggs, grading 15 

Eggs, selling 13, 14, 15 

Eggs, sorting 15 

Eggs, strictly fresh 14 

Eggs, testing 21 

Eggs, weight of 14 

Expenditure i i 



Page 

F 

Farming, egg 9 

Feed, amount of 11, 12 

Feed, cost of 11, 12 

Feed house 35 

Feeding, breeding stock 46 

Feeding chicks 41 

Feeding cockerels 46 

Feeding laying pullets 45 

Feeding molting hens 47 

Feeding pullets 44 

Feeding, time for 53 

Fences 10 

Fertility 16, 21, 37 

Flocks, size of 17 

Floor, cement 23 

Floor space 17 

Food, green 48 

Fresh air 20 

Freshness of eggs 14 

G 

Gluten meal 45 

Grading eggs 15 

Green food 48 

Grit 50 

Grocery trade 13, 14 

Ground oats 45 

Guarantee 14, 15 

H 

Half-breeds 16 

Hatch, when to 39 

Hatching, eggs for 50 

Heater, hot-water 21 

Hen houses 19 

Hens, molting 47 

Hotel trade 13 

House room 17 

Houses, breeding 33 

Houses, brooder 23 

Houses, cockerel 35 

Houses, colony 25 

Houses, feed 35 

Houses for hens 19 

Houses, main laying 27 

I 

Incubator cellar 21 

Incubators, operating 37 

L 

Labels 15 

Laying pullets, feeding 45 

Leghorns, white 16 

Linseed meal 45 

M 

Market quotations 13 

Marketing eggs 13, 14, 15 

Mash, feeding 47 

Meal, corn 45 

Meal, gluten 45 

Meal, oil 45 

Middlings, wheat 45 

Moisture 38 

iSIolting hens, feeding 47 

Mongrels 16 



CORNING EGG BOOK 



3^ 



PaG£ 

o 

Oats, ground 45 

Oats, sprouted 49 

Oil meal 45 

Operating incubators 37 

Oyster shell 50 

P 

Packing 15 

Plymouth Rocks 16 

Premium for Corning eggs 12 

Prices for Corning eggs 12 

Profits II, 12 

Pullets 16 

Pullets, feeding 44 

Punctuality 53 

Q 

Quotations, market 13 

R 

Range 44 

Rat-proof 2^ 

Record, egg 15 

Regularity 53 

Restaurant trade 13 

Revenue from Corning Method 12 

s 

Scraps, beef 45 

Seals on boxes 15 



Page 

Selling eggs 13, 14, 15 

Shell, oyster 50 

Shipments 14 

Size of flocks 17 

Sorting eggs 15 

Specialization 9 

Sprouted oats 49 

Strain, importance of 16 

Sunlight 20 

Sunny Slope Farm 10 

T 

Temperature 21, 38 

Time for feeding 53 

V 

N'entilation 20, 24, 31, 38 

w 

Water 21, 44, 49 

Weight of eggs 14 

Wheat bran 45 

Wheat middlings 45 

White eggs 14, 16 

White Leghorns 16 

Windows 23, 24, 25 

Workshop 35 

Wyandottes 16 

Y 

Yearling hens 16 



fCOPY D^\ TO CAT OiV. 

NOV 6J1:J9 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 



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